Vol.  VII 

February 

1,  1905                           No.  2 

►he  JJ 

^olphin 

CONTENTS 


The  Very  ftev.  P.  a.  v&X'jn  aajsisaaoJi  jl/.u.,  ir.iT,,  zjimfynuiw,  xjrei*nu. 
NOTES  ON  THE  ENGLISH  VERSIONS  OF  THE   ''DIES  IRAE"..,  186 
By  the  late  C.  F.  S.  W  ARBEIT,  M.A.,  author  of  "  Died  Irae,M  and  collabora- 
tor in  the  '«  Dictionary  of  Hymnology." 

COMMENT  ON  THE   "DIES  IEAE  " 193 

The  Bev.  H.  T,  HENBY,  Litt.D,L  Overbrook  Seminary,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


I 


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FROM   THE  LIBRARY  OF 


REV.    LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON,   D.  D. 


BEQUEATHED    BY   HIM   TO 
THE   LIBRARY  OF 

STUDE 

PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

RE  Progress 

...   .238 

STTTDE     ^H 

The  Perpetual  Virginity  of  Mary  and  the  Immaculate  Conception 239 

The  Age  of  the  Hebrew  Language  and  Literature 241 

Vile  Books  and  the  Literary  Hawkere 244 

A  Comet'i  Motion .246 

Beoret  Societies  among  Catholics . 246 

CRITICISMS  AHD  NOTES : 

Barry:  Eeraldi  of  Revolt 249 

Luoai :  In  the  Morning  of  Life 252 

CONTENTS  CONTINUED 


?2 1936 


r  c  r 


THE  DOLPHIN 


! 


Vol.  VI, 


November   1904. 


No.  5 


DIES  IRAE. 

THE  following  English  version  of  the  Dies  Irae  is  a  cento  in  tro- 
chaic 7s,  collated  from  various  authors  whose  translations  of  the 
selected  stanzas  are  mentioned  by  Mr.  Warren  as  among  the  best. 
The  stanzas  will  be  found  under  their  several  numerical  headings  in 
subsequent  articles  on  the  Dies  Irae  in  these  pages. 

Editor. 


Dies  irae,  dies  ilia, 
Solvet  saeclum  in  favilla ; 
Teste  David  cum  Sibylla. 


Ah  that  day  of  wrath  and  woe, 
When  the  fire  that  seers  foreknow 
All  the  world  shall  overflow. 

(Canon  Bright,  author  of 
Athanasius.") 


Quantus  tremor  est  futurus 
Quan»  o  Judex  est  venturus 
Cuncta  stricte  discussurus  ! 


O  what  trembling  shall  appear 
When  His  coming  shall  be  near 
Who  shall  all  things  strictly  clear 
(Dean  Alford,  1844.) 


Tuba  mirum  spargens  sonum 
Per  sepulchra  regionum 
Coget  omnes  ante  thronum. 


At  the  unearthly  trump's  command 
Heard  in  graves  of  every  land 
All  before  the  throne  must  stand. 
(Canon  Bright,  in  Athanasius.') 


Mors  stupebit  et  natura, 
Cum  resurget  creatura 
Judicanti  responsura. 


Death  shall  shrink  and  Nature  quake 
When  all  creatures  shall  awake 
Answer  to  their  God  to  make. 

(Dean  Alford.) 


498 


THE  DOLPHIN. 


Liber  scriptus  proferetur 
In  quo  totum  continetur 
Unde  mundus  judicetur. 


Then  the  volume  shall  be  spread 
And  the  writing  shall  be  read 
Which  shall  judge   the   quick  and 

dead. 

(Isaac  Williams,  British  Maga- 
zine,  Jan.,  1839.) 


Judex  ergo  cum  sedebit 
Quidquid  latet,  apparebit ; 
Nil  inultum  remanebit. 


When   the    Judge    His   place    has 

ta'  en 
All  things  hid  shall  be  made  plain, 
Nothing  unavenged  remain. 

(Archbishop  Trench.) 


Quid  sum,  miser,  tunc  dicturus  ?     What  shall  wretched  I  then  plead, 
Quern  patronum  rogaturus,  Who  for  me  shall  intercede, 

Cum  vix  Justus  sit  securus?  When  the  righteous  scarce  is  freed? 

(Isaac  Williams.) 


Rex  tremendae  majestatis, 
Qui  salvandos  salvas  gratis. 
Salva  me,  fons  pietatis. 


King  of  dread,  whose  mercy  free 
Saveth  those  that  saved  shall  be, 
Fount  of  pity,  pity  me. 

(Lord  Lindsay,  the  late  Lord 
of  Crawford.) 


Recordare,  Jesu  pie, 
Quod  sum  causa  tuae  viae 
Ne  me  perdas  ilia  die. 


Jesus,  'twas  my  debt  to  pay 
Thou  didst  wend  Thy  weary  way  ; 
Keep  me  on  that  dreadful  day. 
(Messenger  S.   Hear/,   England, 

18750 


Quaerens  me  sedisti  lassus  : 
Redemisti  crucem  passus : 
Tantus  labor  non  sit  cassus. 


Weary  satst  Thou  seeking  me, 
Diedst  redeeming  on  the  tree  ; 
Not  in  vain  such  toil  can  be. 
(Mrs.  Elizabeth  Charles.) 


Juste  judex  ultionis, 
Donum  fac  remissionis 
Ante  diem  rationis. 


Thou  just  Judge  of  wrath  severe, 
Grant  my  sins  remission  here, 
Ere  Thy  reckoning  day  appear. 
(Dean  Alford.) 


DIES  IRAE. 


499 


Ingemisco  tamquam  reus  : 
Culpa  rubet  vultus  meus  : 
Supplicanti  parce,  Deus. 


Sighs  and  tears  my  sorrow  speak, 
Shame  and  grief  are  on  my  cheek, 
Mercy,  mercy,  Lord,  I  seek. 

(Dr.  Schaff.) 


Qui  Mariam  absolvisti 
Et  latronem  exaudisti, 
Mihi  quoque  spem  dedisti. 


Thou  who  Mary  didst  forgive 
And  who  badst  the  robber  live, 
Hope  to  me  dost  also  give. 

(Archbishop  Trench.) 


Preces  meae  non  sunt  dignae, 
Sed  tu  bonus  fac  benigne 
Ne  perenne  cremer  igne. 


Though  my  prayers  deserve  no  hire, 
Yet,  good  Lord,  grant  my  desire, 
I  may  'scape  eternal  fire. 

.  (Office  B.   V.  M.,  1687.) 


Inter  oves  locum  praesta 
Et  ab  hoedis  me  sequestra 
Statuens  in  parte  dextra. 


Mid  Thy  sheep  my  place  command. 
From  the  goats  far  off  to  stand, 
Set  me,  Lord,  at  Thy  right  hand. 
(Archbishop  Trench.) 


Confutatis  maledictis, 
Flammis  acribus  addictis  ; 
Voca  me  cum  benedictis. 


When  the  curst  are  put  to  shame, 
Cast  into  devouring  flame, 
With  the  blest  then  call   my  name. 
(Dr.  Schaff.) 


Oro  supplex  et  acclinis, 
Cor  contritum  quasi  cinis, 
Gere  curam  mei  finis. 


Contrite,  suppliant,  I  pray, 
Ashes  on  my  heart  I  lay  ; 
Care  Thou  for  me  in  that  day. 

(Mrs.  Charles.) 


Lacrimosa  dies  ilia 
Qua  resurget  ex  favilla 
Judicandus  homo  reus. 
Huic  ergo  parce,  Deus  : 


Pie  Jesu,  Domine, 

Dona  eis  requiem.      Amen. 


Full  of  tears  the  day  shall  prove 
WThen  from  ashes  rising  move 
To  the  judgment  guilty  men  : 
Spare,  Thou  God  of  mercy,  then. 
(Isaac  Williams.) 

Lord,  we  bend  to  Thee  for  them, 
Dona  eis  requiem. 

(William  Hay,  1831.) 


500  THE   DOLPHIN. 

NOTES  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE"  AND  ITS  ENGLISH  VERSIONS.1 

By  the  late  C.  F.  S.  Warren,  M.A.,  author  of  "  Dies  Irae,"  etc.,  and  collaborator 
in  the  Dictionary  of  Hymnology. 

IT  is  now,  I  suppose,  considered  as  tolerably  certain  that  this 
hymn  was  written  by  Thomas  of  Celano,  a  friend  and  pupil  of 
St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  and  one  of  the  first  monks  of  his  Franciscan 
order  of  Minorites,  founded  A.  D.  1208. 

The  purpose  of  this  essay  is  to  consider  the  translation  of  the 
hymn  into  English,  and  the  many  attempts  that  have  been  made 
so  to  translate  it;  and  therefore  little  will  be  said  on  the  question 
of  its  authorship  and  such  kindred  points,  and  at  a  dissertation 
on  the  nature  of  the  composition  as  a  whole  no  attempt  whatever 
will  be  made.  But  for  the  sake  of  more  completeness  a  few  notes 
shall  be  put  down  from  various  sources  on  the  former  subject. 
For  it  is  often  vexatious  to  the  reader  of  such  an  essay  as  this  not 
to  have  before  him  short  answers  to  all  the  questions  bearing  on 
the  subject  which  the  reading  thereof  may  raise  in  his  mind,  such 
as  he  may  not  recollect  at  the  moment,  and  such  as  he  may  find 
it  wearisome  there  and  then  to  rise  and  search  out  for  himself. 

Thomas  of  Celano,  I  said,  is  now  generally  considered  as  the 
author ;  though  like  all  other  celebrated  writings  (from  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  downwards)  whose  authorship  is  not  demonstra- 
bly certain,  this  hymn  has  been  given  to  many;  as  to  the  great 
names  of  St.  Gregory  the  Great,  St.  Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  and  St. 
Bonaventure  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  to  the  little  ones 
of  Latino  Frangipani,  known  as  Cardinal  Malabrancia  (he  was  a 
nephew  of  Pope  Nicholas  III) ;  Cardinal  Orsino ;  Thurston,  Arch- 
bishop of  York,  who  died  1140;  Felix  Hammerlein  of  Zurich, 
who  will  be  mentioned  again;  Agostino  Biella  who  died  1491, 
and  Humbertus,  a  General  of  the  Dominicans.  But  though  the  evi- 
dence cannot  be  here  gone  into,  Mohnike,  Daniel,  and  other 
hymnologists,  are  satisfied  with  that  which  gives  it  to  Thomas  of 
Celano,  the  Franciscan ;  dates  disprove  the  claims  of  some,  and 
internal  evidence  those  of  others. 

Thomas  of  Celano  died  about  1255,  and  the  first  known  men- 
tion of  the  hymn  is  by  another  Franciscan,  Bartholomew  Albizzi 

1  See  Conference  in  present  issue,  "  Dies  Irae."     (Ed.) 


NOTES  ON  THE  "D/ES  IRAE."  501 

of  Pisa,  1385,  in  his  Liber  Conformitatum — which  conformities 
are  the  conformities  by  somatization  and  otherwise  of  St.  Francis 
to  our  Saviour,  briefly  summed  up  by  Mr.  Myers  : 

"O  mate  of  poverty,  0  pearl  unpriced, 
O  coespoused,  cotransforate  with  Christ  !" 

Bartholomew  states  that  the  hymn  was  even  then  used  in  the  Mass 
for  the  Dead ;  as  would  be  expected  of  a  Franciscan  he  praises  it 
much;  as  would  also  be  expected  of  a  Dominican,  Sixtus  Senensis, 
two  hundred  years  after,  depreciates  it  equally. 

The  first  printed  book  in  which  it  is  found  is  a  Missal  printed  at 
Pavia,  149 1,2  but  it  is  not  of  universal  occurrence  till  the  Council  of 
Trent  inserted  it — after  the  ancient  precedent — in  the  Mass  "  in 
Commemoratione  omnium  Fidelium  Defunctorum,"  where  it  forms 
the  Sequence,  follows,  that  is  to  say,  the  Epistle. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  original  form  of  the  hymn 
is  the  seventeen  stanzas  given  by  the  Archbishop  of  Dublin  in 
the  Sacred  Latin  Poetry  (probably  at  present  the  best  known 
source  to  go  to  for  it),  beginning  Dies  irae,  dies  ilia,  and  ending 
Gere  curam  mei finis.  But  in  other  forms  of  it  the  hymn  has  a 
new  beginning  and  two  separate  new  endings  ;  and  of  the  latter  one 
has  the  authority  of  the  Roman  Missal,  and  is  not  uncommonly 
attached.  This  is  the  two  couplets  beginning  Lacrimosa  dies  ilia, 
and  the  "  Requiem  "  ;  but  whereas  the  hymn  itself  is  not  known 
before  1385,  these  are  found  much  earlier,3  and  however  soon 
they  may  have  been  added — it  is  possible  that  their  author  himself 
added  them — it  must  be  confessed  that  they  spoil  the  close  and 
can  hardly  have  been  part  of  the  original  composition.  Mone 4 
would  argue  from  this  that  the  hymn  is  founded  on  others  and  is 
perhaps  a  kind  of  cento ;  but  though  he  does  quote  a  few 
lines  of  it  from  other  hymns,5  these  are  not  shown  to  be  older 
than  the  Dies  Irae ;  and  the  first  line  is  of  course  a  quotation — 
indeed  a  verbatim  one — from  the  Vulgate,  Soph.  1  :  15.6 

2  Dr.  Rock  in  Notes  end  Queries,  1st  S.,  ii,  105. 

3  Daniel,  Thes.  Hymned.,  v,  no. 

4  Hyvinen  des  Mittelalters,  i,  408. 

0  Several,  for  instance,  are  to  be  found  in  a  Psalta  iutn  de  Nomine  Jem,  Mone,  i, 
345- 

6  "That  day  is  a  day  of  wrath."  Perhaps  it  is  well  to  keep  this  word  wrath 
in  a  version,  for  the  sake  of  following  the  prophet  as  Thomas  of  Celano  did. 


502  THE  DOLPHIN. 

But  if  these  spoil  the  close,  much  more  does  the  other  ending, 
whose  origin  is  pretty  well  known ;  it  is  the  production  of  Felix 
Hammerlein,  a  priest  of  Zurich  (who  died  about  1457),  and  con- 
sists of  third  lines  added  to  these  couplets,  without  the  "  Requiem" 
and  five  more  very  unnecessary  stanzas  to  wind  up  ;  which  may 
be  found  in  Dr.  Coles.  Daniel,  not  stating  why,  gives  but  the 
first  three  of  them,  in  which  the  only  thing  worthy  of  much 
notice  seems  to  be  the  introduction  of  the  name  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  Mary  as  an  observation — not  improbably  one,  perhaps  a 
chief,  reason  for  its  writing — 

"Vitam  meara  fac  felicem 
Propter  tuam  genitricem 
Jesse  Florem  et  radicem," 

and  the  application  to  her  of  the  title  of  "  root  of  Jesse ;  "  other 
instances  of  this  may  be  found  in  Mone,  ii,  308,  309. 

The  "  new  beginning,"  as  I  call  it,  is  of  less  certain  origin ; 
it  is  what  is  called  the  "  Mantuan  marble,"  a  copy  of  the  hymn 
said  to  be  engraved  in  the  church  of  St.  Francis  at  Mantua,  start- 
ing with  four  stanzas  before  Dies  Irae.  But  the  church  is  much 
younger  than  the  date  of  the  hymn,  there  is  no  evidence  of  the 
date  of  the  engraving,  and  Daniel  even  hints  doubts  of  its  exist- 
ence at  all ;  while  from  other  sources  the  extra  stanzas  cannot  be 
traced  higher  than  1594.  The  Mantuan  marble  also  gives  a  new 
last  stanza ; 7  both  this  version  and  Hammerlein's  may  be  found 
in  Daniel ;  and  furthermore  there  are  other  various  readings  in 
different  editions  of  the  hymn,  of  which  all  of  any  importance — 
these  are  not  more  than  two  or  three — will  be  mentioned  in  their 
proper  places  hereafter. 

Now  then  to  the  more  immediate  object  of  this  essay,  the  English 
versions  of  the  hymn.  I  have  collected,  by  the  kind  help  of  cor- 
respondents of  Notes  and  Queries  and  the  Athenceum,  ninety- 
seven8  complete  versions  in  the  English  language — practically, 
that,  is  complete,  for  two  are  deficient  in  one  stanza ;  and  two  pro- 

7  Dean  Stanley  appears  to  have  considered  the  "  Mantuan  ' '  version  as  the  author- 
ized one  ;  using  in  his  introduction  to  his  translation  (Macmillart  s  Magazine,  Dec, 
1868),  words  to  the  effect  that  "in  the  Missal  one-third  of  the  original  is  left  out." 

8  A  remarkably  full  collection  of  versions  for  the  period  at  which  Mr.  Warren 
made  his  analytic  study  of  renderings  into  English.      (Ed.) 


NOTES  ON  THE  ''DIES  IRAEr  503 

fessed  fragments,  the  well-known  one  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  and 
one  by  Dr.  Kynaston ;  besides  one  stray  rendering  of  the  first 
verse  only.  Of  these  the  great  majority  are  in  rhyming  triplets  ; 
these  again  subdivide  into  three  classes : 

1.  The  trochaic  eight-syllable  triplet,  exactly  imitating  the 
original. 

2.  The  trochaic  seven-syllable  triplet,  which  imitates  the 
original  except  in  putting  a  single  for  a  double. 

3.  The  iambic  eight-syllable  triplet,  single-rhymed  of  course, 
which  varies  somewhat  from  the  original ;  but  granting — which  of 
course  must  be  granted — the  triplets,  it  is  in  my  mind  its  best 
English  representative. 

Of  the  other  versions  some  are  in  triplets,  but  in  singular 
variations,  one  in  iambic  8  8  10,  one  in  trochaic  eights  with  the 
third  line  rhymeless,  and  one  in  trochaic  eights  with  the  rhyme 
so  irregular  that  I  can  find  no  principle  in  it,  neither  give  of  it  any 
account;  and  one  of  the  same  with  no  rhyme  at  all.  Of  the 
remaining  eleven  versions,  six  are  in  couplets ;  three  being  in 
trochaic  sevens,  one  in  trochaic  eights,  and  two  in  iambic  eights; 
while  of  the  last  five,  one  is  in  7  6  7  6,  and  the  others  in  such  as 
used  to  be  called  "  peculiar  measures,"  two  in  8  8  6  8  8  6,  one  in 
778778,  and  the  final  one  (most  peculiar  of  all)  in  66656665. 

The  first  known  English  versions  date  from  the  early  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century :  the  first  of  all  I  believe  to  be  Joshua 
Sylvester's  (d.  161 8).  It  is  that  which  I  have  just  mentioned  in 
778  778,  and  may  be  found  in  his  translation  of  Du  Bartas,  1621, 
p.  1 2 14,  or  1633,  p.  620,  entitled  "  A  Holy  Preparation  to  a  Joy- 
ful Resurrection."  There  was  another  edition  of  Du  Bartas,  1644 
(Allibone),  but  there  is  no  modern  reprint  of  Sylvester  as  a  whole, 
though  some  smaller  poems  are  in  Sir  Egerton  Brydges'  Restitute/,, 
this  not  among  them. 

The  next  version,9  about  or  soon  after  the  same  time,  is  William 
Drummond's  of  Hawthornden,  among  his  translations  of  twenty- 
one  of  the  best  known  Latin  hymns.     It  may  be  found  in  "  The 

9  The  list  of  versions  contributed  by  Mr.  Warren  to  the  London  Athenaum, 
July  26,  1890,  places  Drummond's  version  fourth  in  chronological  order,  the  second 
place  being  given  to  Crashaw  (1646),  the  third  to  Patrick  Carey  (1651),  while 
Drummond's  is  listed  as  1656.     (Ed.) 


504  THE  DOLPHIN. 

Poetical  Works  of  William  Drummond  of  Hawthornden,  edited 
by  William  B.  Turnbull,  London.  J.  B.  Smith,  Soho  Square, 
1856,"  at  page  266  among  the  Posthumous  Poems,  which  were 
"  extracted  (preface,  page  xii)  from  the  Hawthornden  MSS.  pre- 
served in  the  Library  of  the  Society  of  Antiquaries  of  Scotland,  and 
originally  selected  and  printed  with  a  valuable  memoir  and  notices 
by  Mr.  David  Laing  in  the  fourth  volume  of  the  Transactions  of 
that  body."  It  may  also  be  found  in  Anderson's  Poets,  IV,  682  ; 
but  in  Peter  Cunningham's  reprint,  1833,  °f  what  he  called  "the 
whole  of  Drummond's  poems  worth  preserving,"  it  does  not 
appear. 

These  two  versions — Sylvester's  and  Drummond's — are  re- 
markable, as  they  follow  the  "  Mantuan  marble." 

They  were  succeeded  by  Richard  Crashaw,  whose  version  or 
rather  paraphrase,  in  the  Steps  to  the  Temple,  1646  (called  "  In 
Meditation  of  the  Day  of  Judgment "),  is  an  exceedingly  fine 
poem  in  couplets,  of  four-line  stanzas.10  An  Advent  hymn 
abridged  from  it  was  published  by  the  Rev.  Charles  Warren  in  the 
Journal  of  Convocationior  December,  1854  (I,  102),  and  afterward 
used  in  a  small  collection  of  hymns  privately  printed  by  him — be- 
fore the  days  of  Hymns  Ancient  and  Modern  and  kindred  books 
— for  the  use  of  the  parish  which  he  held  for  thirty-three  years* 
Crashaw  was  followed  by  Patrick  Carey ;  then  by  "  Rosarists."11 

In  the  same  century  are  also  an  anonymous  version  in  an  Office 
of  the  B.V.M.,  London,  Hy.  Hills,  1687,  which  the  kindness  of 
Mr.  Loftie  has  enabled  me  to  procure,  reprinted  in  "  A  Manual 
of  Devout  Prayers  and  other  Christian  Devotions,  1706,  corrected 
from  the  errors  of  former  editions,"12  another  remarkable  and  little 
known  one  attached  to  "  A  Paraphrase  in  English 13  on  the  Fol- 
lowing of  Christ  written  originally  in  Latin  by  Thomas  a  Kempis 
1694,"  which    is  in  rhyming  triplets  of  8  810;  and  Lord  Ros- 


10  Of  this  it  is  said  in  Wilmott's  Lives  of  English  Sacred  Poets,  p.  317  (London, 
ed.  1839),  "  To  style  Crashaw' s  poem  a  translation  is  scarcely  to  render  justice  to  its 
merits  ;  he  has  expanded  the  original  outline,  brightened  the  coloring,  and  enlivened 
the  expression." 

11  See  Dublin  Review,  Jan.,  1883,  p.  59.      (Ed.) 

12  No  name  of  author,  editor,  printer  or  place. 

13  Verse. 


NOTES  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  505 

common's14  (d.  1684),  first  published  in  1721,15  which  has  been 
several  times  reprinted,  as  in  "The  Divine  Office,  1763/' and  is 
partly  inserted  in  the  hymn  books  of  Hall  and  the  senior  Bicker- 
steth.  Its  last  two  lines  were  the  latest  words  on  its  author's  lips 
(Johnson's  Life) ;  he  is  noted  as  the  purest  among  Charles  II's 
impure  poets,16  and  his  version  is  good,  though  sometimes  not 
very  literal. 

In  1656  Bishop  Taylor  writes  to  John  Evelyn,17  asking  him  for 
a  translation ;  but  if  it  was  ever  done  this  has  not  been  found. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  as  an  indication  of  the  spirit  of  the  time 
that  within  my  knowledge  no  single  version  dates  from  the  eigh- 
teenth century  (at  least  till  its  very  close),18  and  the  hymn  appears 
to  be  more  or  less  disregarded  ;  it  is  told  of  Dr.  Johnson  that  he 
could  not  repeat  Tantus  labor  non  sit  casstis  without  weeping ; 
but  it  is  probable  that  except  to  scholars  such  as  he  was,  the  hymn 
was  little  known.  Interest  in  it  seems  to  have  been  revived  to- 
ward the  close  of  that  century  and  the  beginning  of  the  present, 
in  Germany  by  Goethe's  introduction  of  it  into  Faust  and  Justin 
Kernel's  into  Die  Wahnsinnigen  Briider ;  and  in  England  by  Sir 
Walter  Scott's  into  the  Last  Minstrel  (first  published  1805) — 

''While  the  pealing  organ  rung 
Thus  the  holy  fathers  sung — " 

and  his  fragment,  imperfect  as  it  is,  almost  instantly  found  its  way 

14  Mr.  Shipley  thinks  the  version  attributed  to  Roscommon  should  rather  be 
given  to  Dryden.     (Ed.) 

15  The  version  appeared  previously  in  Miscellanea  Sacra  (1696).      (Ed.) 

16  Bishop  Ken's  opinion  of  these  poets  is  no  doubt  given  in  the  lines  : 

"  Of  all  the  gifts  which  heaven  designed 

To  hallow  and  adorn  the  mind, 

Sweet  poetry  has  suffered  most 

By  bards  from  the  infernal  coast, 

Who  in  her  beauteous  visage  spit 

The  putrefaction  of  their  wit."  (Twentieth  Sunday  after  Trinity) ; 
and  the  two  passages  in  which  Pope's  good  opinion  of  Roscommon  is  given  are,  or 
more  probably  were,  better  known  :  Essay  on  Criticism,  726  ;  Horace  (II  Epp.  1), 
213. 

17  Heber's  Ed.  I,  Ivi. 

18  Mr.  Warren  amended  this  statement  in  the  Athenaum  list,  which  mentions  a 
version  in  1754  and  another  in  1780,  the  first  in  Bona  Mors,  the  second  in  Office  for 
the  Dead,  both  versions  being  anonymous.      (Ed.) 


506  THE  DOLPHIN. 

into  sacred  anthologies  and  then  into  hymn  books  down  to  Hymns 
Ancie?tt  and  Modern  and  Novello's  Hymnary.  The  Rev.  Louis 
Coutier  Biggs  says  of  it19  that  it  "  has  more  of  the  spirit  and  tone 
of  an  English  hymn  than  most  of  the  more  literal  translations," 
which  is  true  not  of  course  altogether  because  it  is  Scott's,  but 
because  it  is  a  paraphrase,  and  it  is  perhaps  easier  to  give  that 
spirit  and  tone  to  a  paraphrase  than  to  a  more  literal  version. 
Though  if  Scott  had  been  a  more  exact  Latinist  than  he  was  and 
had  had  some  knowledge  of  theological  language,  he  might  prob- 
ably have  made  as  good  a  version  as  can  well  be  done.  Of  him 
as  of  Lord  Roscommon  it  is  related  that  the  hymn  soothed  his 
death-bed — "  we  very  often  heard  distinctly  the  cadence  of  the 
Dies  Irae:m 

There  is  an  anonymous  version  in  the  old  monthly  Christian 
Remembrancer,  vii,  315,  which  is  in  some  respects  good;  Lord 
Macaulay  published  his  fine  version  (trochaic  seven-syllable  coup- 
lets) in  the  Christian  Observer,  1826,  though  it  was  not  again 
published  till  after  his  death;  there  is  another  in  the  same  metre, 
too  wordy,  but  here  and  there  striking,  by  William  Hay,  Esq.,  in 
the  Bengal  Annual,  Calcutta,  1831  ;  and  in  the  same  year  Dr. 
Husenbeth  put  forth  a  version  in  "  peculiar  metre"  in  the  Missal 
for  the  Laity?1 

With  these  exceptions,  so  far  as  I  know,  the  present  crowd  of 
modern  versions  dates  from  the  Oxford  Movement  of  1833,  and 
begins,  I  believe,  with  Chandler's  version  in  the  Hymns  of  the 
Primitive  Church,  1837,  which  appears  to  be  the  earliest  in  the 
trochaic  eights,  the  exact  imitation  of  the  original.  He  was  fol- 
lowed by  Isaac  Williams  (Lyra  Ecclesiastica),  Caswall  (Lyra 
Catholica),  Alford,  and  Irons,  1848;  this  last  version  is  now  the 
best  known  from  its  insertion  in  Hymns  Ancie7it  and  Modern. 
But  its  notoriety  is  rather  unlucky,  since  it  cannot  be  called  one 
of  the  best ;  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  compilers  did  not 
rather  choose  Isaac  Williams  or  Chandler,  if  they  must  needs 
have  the  original  double  rhymes. 

Among  versions  more  modern  still,  some  of  the  better  known 

19  English  Hymnology ,  p.  9. 

20  Lockkarfs  Life,  vii,  391. 

21  London:  Joseph  Booker,  31  New  Bond  Street. 


NOTES  ON  THE  -DIES  IRAE."  507 

names  are  Dr.  F.  G.  Lee  {Poems,  1850),  P.  S.  Worsley,22  Arch- 
bishop Trench  (first  published  in  Mr.  Fosbery's  Hymns  for  the 
Sick),  Dr.  Schaff  [Christ  in  Song,  1869;  he  has  also  made  a 
German  version),  Lord  Lindsay  {Christian  Art,  i,  ccvii)  and  Dean 
Stanley  [Macmillan 's,  Dec,  1868);  a  supposed  version  by  Dean 
Hook  I  have,  though  with  his  son's  kind  help,  been  unable  to 
trace. 

So  far  at  this  moment  for  versions  of  English  nationality ;  of 
Scotch  ones  I  have  only  seen  two ;  that  in  the  United  Presby- 
terian Hymnal7*  is  by  Dr.  William  Robertson,  and  there  is  an- 
other by  Dr.  Hamilton  Magill  in  his  Songs  of  the  Christian  Creed 
and  Life.  They  are  perhaps  fair  ordinary  ones,  but  not  excel- 
lent ;  neither,  as  far  as  I  can  see,  is  there  the  least  choice  between 
them. 

LTnder  the  head  of  Irish  versions  it  may  be  noted,  as  many 
Roman  Catholic  versions  belong  to  that  country,  that  among  these 
some  of  the  best  are  to  be  found.  It  cannot,  I  think,  be  denied 
that  the  change  of  the  Divine  Office  to  the  vulgar  tongue  for  use 
in  Anglican  services  has  had  its  great  share  in  the  smaller  famil- 
iarity with  Latin  as  a  spoken  language  exhibited  by  non-Catholics 
in  England ;  and  a  Roman  Catholic  priest  who  performs  such 
offices  in  Latin,  or  an  educated  Roman  Catholic  layman  who  fol- 
lows their  performance,  can  hardly  fail  to  be  more  deeply  pene- 
trated with  the  spirit  of  the  Latin  hymns  and  this  among  them, 
than  an  Anglican  who  has  not  made  them  more  or  less  of  a  special 
study.  At  any  rate  the  fact  is  such,  that  some  Roman  Catholic 
versions  are  the  best ;  and  in  the  same  way  there  is  no  doubt  that 
among  Anglican  versions  those  produced  by  Anglicans  are  as  a 
rule  superior  to  the  productions  of  those  writers  who  hold  Prot- 
estant and  Puritan  opinions.  The  reason  of  which  seems  to  be 
not  merely  that  Catholics  are  usually  better  scholars  and  proba- 
bly more  familiar  with  Latin  hymns,  but  further  that  a  knowledge 
of  theological  language  and  ideas  does  not  usually  go  with  Prot- 
estantism. Though — to  digress  for  an  instant — the  converse  of 
these  propositions  would  perhaps  be  truer ;  to  say,  that  is,  that 
such  study  as  I  speak  of  generally  leads  men  to  Catholicism.     A 

22  Blackwood,  May,  i860,   Poems  and  Translations,  1 863. 

23  This  "  Church, "  it  must  be  remembered,  is  not  the  Established  Scotch  Church. 


508  THE  DOLPHIA. 

good  Roman  Catholic  version,  for  instance,  was  published  in  the 
Messenger  of  the  Sacred  Heart,  1875  : 

"  Dawns  the  day,  the  day  of  dread, 
Fast  the  fires  of  ruin  spread, 
David  and  the  Sybil  said." 

But  I  am  afraid  I  cannot  equally  commend  a  rather  extraordinary 
version  in  the  "  Manual  for  Sisters  of  Charity"  1848,  by  Richard 
Dalton  Williams,  an  Irish  barrister  now  deceased : 

"  Woe  is  the  day  of  ire 

Shrouding  the  earth  in  fire, 
Sibyls'  and  David's  lyre 

Dimly  foretold  it ; 
Strictly  the  guilty  land 
By  the  Avenger  scanned, 
Smitten  aghast  shall  stand 

Still  to  behold  it." 

The  metre  is  that  used  by  Drayton  in  the  Battle  of  Agincourt, 
and  Longfellow  in  a  section  of  the  Tales  of  a  Wayside  Lin  [Saga 
of  King  Olaf  xvii,  King  Svend),  and  with  its  hurried  gallop  is 
but  a  poor  substitute  for  the  solemn  Latin  triplets.  Two  other 
Irish  versions  may  be  mentioned,  though  not  Roman  Catholic 
ones ;  but  both  are  tolerable,  the  latter  perhaps  the  better  of  the 
two :  by  Canon  Macilwaine  of  St.  Patrick's  in  his  Lyra  Hibernica 
Sacra  (Belfast,  1878),  one  of  the  latest  in  triplets  I  know  of;  and 
by  the  Rev.  Orlando  Dobbin,  LL.D.,  remarkable  because  I  have 
been  told  by  the  author  that  he  made  it  without  having  read  any 
other  in  the  language. 

Among  the  American  versions,  ol  which  I  think  I  have  be- 
tween forty  and  fifty,  the  first  place  of  mention,  if  it  be  only  for  the 
singularity  of  such  an  undertaking,  is  claimed  by  "  The  Dies  Irae 
in  TJiirteen  Original  Versions,  by  Abraham  Coles,  M.D.,  New 
York,  i860."  A  similar  book  was  one  published  in  Germany; 
Robert  Lecke  in  1842  put  forth  "  Twelve  Original  Versions": 
of  whom  Daniel  says  (ii,  121)  that  he  "  rather  vomited  and  foamed 
forth  versions  "  than  did  them  with  any  skill — magis  evomuit  et 
ebulliit  versiones  quam  subtiliter  atque  artif  close  effinxit ! 24    Strong 

24  Compare  a  curious  parallel  in  a  note  of  Cornelius  a  Lapide  on  Prov.  30  :  I, 
which  in  English  is  to  the  effect  that  "  they  of  old  were  called  vomiters  who  spake 
forth  a  thing  at  the  time  and  not  by  premeditated  oration." 


NOTES  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  509 

words  these  of  Daniel,  and  I  had  rather  he  used  them  than  I ; 
but  they  are  not  without  their  application  to  Dr.  Coles,  since 
hardly  more  than  two  or  three  out  of  the  thirteen  are  of  much 
value  ;  some  are  very  paraphrastic  ;  and  one  is  only  lost  in  wonder 
at  his  facility  in  finding  rhymes.  One  American '  version  by  Mr. 
Henry  Macdonald  I  can  heartily  commend — it  is  as  good  as  any 
version  that  I  know;  General  Dix's,  Scribners  Monthly,  April, 
1876,  though  inferior  is  not  at  all  bad ;  neither  is  James  Ross'  in 
"P.  M."  (New  York  Observer,  1864);  one  by  R.  W.  L.  (The 
Churchman,  New  York,  April  3,  18S0),  is  also  very  good, 
representing  the  original  far  better  than  it  could  have  been  thought 
the  metre  of  7  6  y  6  could  do ;  as  thus  : — 

"  O  day  of  days  of  anger 

When  earth  shall  pass  away 
And  all  be  dust  and  ashes 

As  seer  and  psalmist  say, 
How  great  shall  be  our  terror 

When  He  our  Judge  shall  be 
Who  then  each  deed  shall  measure 

In  strictest  equity." 

In  the  translation  of  the  Dies  Irae — it  being  a  postulate  that 
the  hymn  can  be  translated  in  any  proper  sense  of  the  word — the 
triplets  may  be  considered  as  all  but  necessary  to  be  kept.2'  Some 
of  the  versions  in  other  metres,  Crashaw's  most  of  all,  are  fine 
poems,  but  they  are  not  the  Dies  Irae  ;  the  triplets  are  associated 
with  the  hymn  in  that  way  that  such  a  poor  representation  of  it  as 
our  best  version  after  all  must  be,  must  have  these  to  have  any- 
thing of  the  original's  peculiar  character :  if  it  have  them  not,  it 
may  (as  I  said)  be  a  fine  poem,  but  it  cannot  have  the  indescrib- 
able grandness  and  solemnity  which  they  give  to  the  original ; 
cannot  be  in  short  anything  near  the  wonderful  creation  which  the 
hymn  is  now  universally  allowed  to  be.  There  are  probably  few 
who  would  now  think  with  a  correspondent  of  Notes  and  Queries 
thirty  years  ago  (1st  S.,  ii,  142)  that  the  hymn  deserves  not  praise 
either  for  its  poetry  or  its  piety. 

But  while  I  speak  thus  of  what  is  necessary  in  a  translation,  I 
must  not  be  understood  to  recommend  by  any  means  the  keep- 

2i  They  are  used  with  a  somewhat  similar  effect  by  Archbishop  Trench  in  the 
"Day  of  Death." 


5  I O  THE  D  OLPHIN. 

ing  of  the  double  rhyme :  the  English  language,  though  it  sup- 
plies quite  enough,  supplies  chiefly  parts  of  verbs,  participial  and 
others,  and  words  in  ation  and  similar  endings.  And  of  all 
hideous  things  in  poetry,  a  superabundance  of  rhymes  in  ation  is 
the  most  hideous : 26  how,  for  instance,  can  a  man  away  with  such 
lines  as  these  ? 

"  Carceration,  trucidation, 
Flame  and  axe  and  laceration." 

Yet  they  are  in  the  original  form  of  Dr.  Neale's  well-known 
saints'  day  hymn,  Blessed  feasts  of  blessed  martyrs  ;  and  another 
example  in  the  same  hymn  is  the  unhappy  line,  With  affection's 
recollections,  of  which  it  is  a  problem  I  have  never  been  able  to 
solve  whether  that  be  preferable,  or  Gerard  Moultrie's  With 
devotions  deep  emotions.  Another  form  of  the  double  rhyme, 
the  "  two- word  rhyme,"  is  also  not  good,27  unless  perhaps  where 
the  second  word  is  a  pronoun,  and  thus  of  the  nature  of  an  en- 
clitic ;  such  rhymes  as  chorus,  der  us,  are  allowed  by  custom,  but 
on  the  other  hand  such  as  Sion,  rely  on,  do  not  commend  them- 
selves. 

The  fact  is  that  double  rhymes,  unless  managed  with  such 
skill  which  appears  to  be  beyond  everybody's  power,  cannot  be 
used  continuously ;  and  this  of  course  at  once  excludes  them 
from  a  version  of  the  Dies  Irae.  They  should  only  be  used  in 
conjunction  with  single  ones,  alternately  or  at  longer  intervals, 
and  in  the  middle  of  a  line  not  at  all ;  and  to  most  writers  indeed 
poetical  instinct  has  shown  this,  for  I  do  not  know  instances  of 
their  continuous  use  in  original  compositions ;  in  translation  that 
mistaken  lust  of  exactly  preserving  the  original  metre  has  over- 
come poetical  instinct.  There  is  in  the  Lyra  Mystica,  p.  49,  a 
translation  by  Dr.  Kynaston  of  the  Prayer  of  Hildebert  to  the 
Trinity,  in  55  couplets  of  continuous  double  rhyme  :  no  fewer  than 
26   are    rhymed  with    participles.       In  a  word,  double  rhymes 

26  "  Don't  confound  the  language  of  the  nation 

With  longtailed  words  in  osity  and  ation. " — Whistlecraft. 
27  It  is  luckily  not  common  in  the  versions  ;  though  I  have  seen  one  particularly 
unpleasant  instance  of  it  by  Dr.  Crookes,  of  Philadelphia  : 
"  Then  the  scroll  shall  be  unfolded 
Wherein's  written  what  each  soul  did '." 


NOTES  ON  THE  "DJES  IRAE."  5  1 1 

always  require  the  utmost  skill  in  handling.  Mr.  Myers  in  his 
St.  Paul  and  shorter  poems  in  the  same  metre  has  avoided  their 
dangers  as  well  as  anybody.28 

Speaking  of  them  now  with  more  particular  reference  to  our 
present  subject,  one  great  mistake  whereinto  they  cause  trans- 
lators to  fall  is  that  of  too  freely  using  the  participle  of  a  verb 
with  the  auxiliary  instead  of  the  verb  itself ;  which  Bishop  Elli- 
cott 29  calls  a  sign  of  grammatical  degeneracy :  thus  it  is  not  Eng- 
lish to  say  with  Dr.  Irons : 

"  What  shall  I  frail  man  be  pleading, 
Who  for  me  be  interceding," 

instead  of  with  Isaac  Williams  : 

"  What  shall  wretched  I  then  plead, 
Who  for  me  shall  intercede  ;  " 

and  worse  still  is  this  by  Mr.  Hoskyns  Abrahall : 

"  On  the  rocks  to  hide  them  calling, 
On  the  mountains  to  be  falling.'''' 

Again,  they  lead  one  to  translate  Rex  tranendae  majestatis  by 
King  of  majesty  tremendous,  which  is  not  a  good  line — tremendous 
is  a  word  which  has  been  so  used  as  not  to  represent  trcmendus 
at  all  well.  But  the  temptation  is  one  which  it  seems  difficult  for 
those  who  use  this  metre  to  resist ;  eight  or  nine  translators,  Dean 
Stanley  included,  have  got  the  line ;  one  merit  of  Dr.  Coles  is  that 
he  has  not.  Of  bad  rhymes  little  need  be  said ;  when  you  get 
such  as  aghast  are,  faster,  and  solemn y  column,  volume  (W.  R. 
Williams),  you  are  too  much  aghast  yourself  to  proceed  any 
farther.  Here  again  Dr.  Coles  deserves  praise ;  his  rhymes, 
though  often  extraordinary  in  their  choice,  are,  generally  speak- 
ing, good. 

This  question,  then,  between  single  and  double  rhymes  may, 
I  think,  be  considered  settled  in  favor  of  single  ;  but  there  is 
another — that  between  iambs  and  trochees — which  is  not  so  easy 

28  In  modern  Latin  composition  too  their  difficulties  are  seen  :  compare  the  two 
versions  of  Neale's  "Art  thou  weary"  by  Mr.  Gladstone  with  double  rhymes  truly, 
but  only  alternate,  by  Mr.  Ingham  Black  with  continuous ;  the  former  is  far  the 
better. 

29  Aids  to  Faith,  p.   464. 


5  1 2  THE  D  OLPHIN. 

of  settling.  The  trochees,  of  course,  most  closely  imitate  the 
original,  as  no  doubt  do  the  double  rhymes  also  ;  but  whereas  the 
latter  are  at  once  excluded  as  (so  it  appears  to  me)  contrary  to 
the  habits  of  the  English  language  when  thus  continuously  used, 
and  further  extremely  difficult  to  manage  at  all  well ;  these 
reasons  do  not  apply  to  the  former,  and  therefore  the  consider- 
ation of  their  more  closely  following  the  original  may  be  allowed 
such  weight  as  is  due  to  it.  For  myself,  I  do  not  think  that  very 
much  is  due ;  I  have  already  granted  the  triplets,  and  I  do  not 
think  it  needful  to  grant  more.  In  these  cases  the  original  metre 
should  be  imitated  more  or  less  closely,  but  not  slavishly  stuck  to. 
Here  the  necessary  imitation  consists  in  the  triplets,  in  other  cases 
it  may  be  in  other  things.  But  I  do  not  know  that  there  is,  on 
the  whole,  much  more  difficulty  in  writing  a  good  English  Dies 
Irae  in  trochees  than  in  iambs ;  and  so,  while  myself  preferring 
iambs,  I  should  say  that  the  question  may  be  left  in  the  end  to 
the  likings  and  powers  of  each  translator — there  are  excellent 
versions  of  either  kind.  Some  difficulties  in  trochees  of  course 
there  are,  but  they  are  more  easily  avoided  than  those  arising 
from  double  rhymes.  A  chief  one,  at  least  to  English  writers,  is 
that  of  falling  into  an  awkward  inversion,  as  where  Dr.  Lee  writes 
Offer  what  can  I  as  plea.  Another,  which  we  do  not  seem  to 
have  fallen  into,  though  it  may  be  seen  in  some  American  versions, 
is  that  of  having  to  dispense  with  a  definite  article ;  Dr.  Coles,  for 
instance,  writing  Trumpet  scattering  sounds  of  wonder;  Book 
where  actions  are  recorded. 

My  farther  course  will  be  to  go  through  the  Latin  by  verses, 
examining  what  may  be  considered  necessary  to  make  a  trans- 
lation as  good  as  possible ;  examining  also  thereupon  such  actual 
translations  as  shall  seem  to  be,  one  way  or  the  other,  worthy  of 
examination,  and  tabulating,  where  necessary  or  possible,  such 
words  and  expressions  as  the  different  versions  use. 

But  before  beginning  thus  upon  the  hymn,  properly  so  called, 
a  few  words  may  be  said  upon  the  Mantuan  marble.  It  has  been 
already  stated  that  it  is  far  inferior  to  the  genuine  hymn,  and  that 
only  Sylvester,  Drummond,  and  Dr.  Irons  have  adopted  it  as  the 
basis  of  a  version ;  Dr.  Coles,  though  he  has  turned  it  in  his 
preface,  not  placing  it  in  his  text.     Of  this  version  there  is  hardly 


COMMENT  ON  THE  « '  NO  TES. "  513 

anything  to  be  said ;  the  two  former,  as  might  be  expected,  are 
both  written  in  strong  and  forcible  English ;  and  Drummond  has 
one  extremely  grand  line — grand  for  its  simplicity,  magnificent 
for  its  truth.     This  is  it : 

"  Dies  ilia,  dies  irae  "  That  day  of  terror,  vengeance,  ire, 

Quam  conemur  praevenire  Now  to  prevent  thou  shouldst  desire, 

Obviamque  Deo  ire."  And  to  thy  God  in  haste  retire." 

How  vividly  this  last  line  expresses  the  rush  of  a  faithful  man  to 
prayer  under  some  temptation  or  sorrow  or  disappointment,  when 
he  cannot  bear  it  by  himself  and  hurries  to  lay  it  upon  one  who 
careth  for  him;  when,  as  Charles  Kingsley  once  said,  he  prays 
as  if  the  devil  had  him  by  the  throat.  {Yeast,  p.  18.)  Dr.  Coles' 
rendering  is  different — "  God  to  meet  when  He  appeareth;  "  but  it 
is  plain  (from  the  second  line)  that  the  older  idea  is  correct.30 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "NOTES." 

THE  professed  purpose  of  Mr.  Warren's  essay  on  the  Dies 
Irae  is  to  deal  solely  with  the  versions  into  English  of  that 
monumental  hymn.  He  prefaces  his  "  Notes,"  however,  with 
some  account  of  the  hymn  itself,  because  "  it  is  often  vexatious  to 
the  reader  of  such  an  essay  as  this  not  to  have  before  him  short 
answers  to  all  the  questions  bearing  on  the  subject  which  the 
reading  thereof  may  raise  in  his  mind,  such  as  he  may  not  recol- 
lect at  the  moment,  and  such  as  he  may  find  it  wearisome  there 
and  then  to  rise  and  search  out  for  himself."  Mr.  Warren  ob- 
scurely suggests  what  Dr.  Maitland  openly  declared  in  his  Dark 
Ages — a  fear  that  the  busy  reader  of  our  days  will  not  take  the 
trouble  to  "  see  "  such  and  such  an  author,  such  and  such  a  work, 
such  and  such  a  tome  and  page  of  such  and  such  an  edition ;  and 
every  reader  of  Maitland  is  grateful  to  him  for  the  editorial  energy 
that  makes  it  unnecessary  for  the  reader  to  "  see  "  farther  than 
the  printed  page  before  him.  It  is  with  a  similar  view  to  the  con- 
venience of  readers  that  the  present  writer  ventures  to  supplement 
the  work  of  Mr.  Warren.     But  he  also  thinks  that  the  hymn  is  of 

30  A  detailed  analysis  of  the  Dies  Irae,  by  strophes,  will  begin  in  the  January 
issue  of  the  Dolphin.     (Ed.) 


514  THE  DOLPHIN. 

sufficient  interest  to  Catholics  to  support  a  larger  body  of  com- 
ment on  certain  of  its  phases,  or  on  certain  portions  of  its  literary- 
history,  than  Mr.  Warren  has  indulged  in. 

I. — Authorship. 

The  reasons  for  the  ascription  of  the  hymn  to  Thomas  of  Ce- 
lano  are  partly  negative,  partly  positive.  It  has  been  ascribed  to 
St.  Gregoiy  the  Great  (t  604) ;  but  it  cannot  be  that  such  a 
masterpiece  should  have  lain  unnoticed  for  so  many  centuries ; 
while  the  rhyme  and  the  metrical  scheme  also  forbid  such  an 
ascription.  For  somewhat  similar  reasons  the  ascription  to  St. 
Bernard  of  Clairvaux  is  an  unlikely  one.  The  text  is  found  in  a 
Dominican  Missal  (in  the  Bodleian,  Oxford),  written  toward  the  end 
of  the  fourteenth  century ;  and  thus  two  other  suggested  names 
are  excluded,  viz.,  Felix  Haemmerlein  (t  1457)  and  Augustinus 
Bugellensis  (f  I490)-  Cardinal  Bona  in  his  great  work  on  the 
liturgy  brings  together  five  names  of  the  thirteenth  century.1  Of 
these,  two  were  Dominicans  :  Cardinal  Ursino  (+  1294),  mentioned 
by  Benedict  XIV,  and  the  Dominican  Cardinal  Leander  Albertus  ; 
and  Humbert,  fifth  general  of  the  Dominicans  (t  1276),  mentioned 
by  the  Jesuit  Possevino  as  the  author.  Attempts  are  made  to 
show  that  a  Dominican  authorship  is  veiy  improbable.  Thus 
the  Presbyterian  Dr.  Thompson,  editor  of  Duffield's  Latin  Hymns, 
thinks  "the  Dies  Irae  is  a  Franciscan,  not  a  Dominican  poem.  It 
deals  with  the  practical  and  the  devotional,  not  the  doctrinal  ele- 
ments in  religion.  Had  a  Dominican  written  it,  he  would  have 
been  anxious  only  for  correct  doctrinal  statement."  It  is  some- 
what curious,  in  this  connection,  to  recall  that  Ozanam,  in  his 
history  of  the  Franciscan  poets  in  Italy,  ascribes  the  poem  to 
Innocent  III  (t  12 16).  Internal  evidence  of  this  kind  is  not  en- 
tirely trustworthy,  and  a  stronger  argument  is  found  in  a  Domin- 
ican prohibition  of  the  poem   in   Requiem  Masses  as  unrubrical 

1  Leander  Albertus  Cardinali  Ursino,  ordinis  Praedicatorum,  adscribit ;  Lucas 
Waddingus  Thomae  de  Celano,  ordinis  Minorum  ;  alii  apud  eundem  Waddingum  S. 
Bonaventurae  vel  Matthaeo  Aquaspartano,  Minorum  Cardinali.  Possevinus  in  appar. 
sacro  tribui  ait  Augustino  Bugellensi  Pedemontano,  ord.  S.  Augustini,  subdens  ibidem, 
verum  auctorem  esse  Umbertum,  Vic.  Gen.  ordinis  Praedicatorum. — De  Ret.  Li/., 
lib.  II,  cap.  vi. 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "  NO  TES: '  5  1 5 

(Salamanca,  1576).  Sixtus  Senensis,  a  Dominican  writer  (t  1569) 
refers  in  his  Bibliotheca  Sacra  to  the  hymn  as  an  "  uncouth  poem" : 
"  Haec  Augustinus,  ad  cujus  sententiam  perspexisse  videtur  auc- 
tor  ejus  inconditi  rhythmi  quern  ecclesia  in  sacris  defunctorum  mys- 
teriis  decantat :  Liber  scriptus  proferetur,  in  quo  totum  continetur, 
Unde  mundus  judicetur."  Whereupon  Julian,  echoing  Daniel,2 
remarks  that  "  this  points  to  a  Franciscan  origin ;  the  old  rivalry 
between  the  Franciscans  and  Dominicans,  as  is  well  known,  was 
very  great.  Hence  this  writer's  hostility  furnishes  a  substantial 
argument."  The  force  of  these  arguments  is  impaired,  however, 
by  the  fact  that  the  oldest  known  source  for  the  text  of  the  poem 
is  a  Dominican  Missal  written  about  the  close  of  the  fourteenth 
century ;  and  while  its  most  frequent  use  is  found  in  Franciscan 
Missals,  it  is  also  found  in  the  Dominican  processional,  Venice, 
1494,  and  the  Dominican  Missal,  Venice,  1496. 

Among  the  Franciscan  claimants,  preference  is  given  to 
Thomas  of  Celano,  for  the  reason  that  he  is  considered  to  be  the 
author  of  two  Sequences  in  honor  of  St.  Francis  (Fregii  victor 
virtnalis  and  Sanctitatis  nova  signa),  and  there  is  therefore  noth- 
ing improbable  in  such  an  ascription  of  authorship ;  and  for  the 
further  reason  that  the  earliest  mention  of  the  hymn  is  that  made 
by  the  Franciscan  Bartholomaeus  Pisanus,  who  in  his  Liber  Con- 
formitatnm  (1385)  remarks  that  the  Prose  in  the  Mass  for  the 
Dead  "  is  said  to  have  been  composed  by  Brother  Thomas  of  Ce- 
lano." As  has  just  been  noted,  the  Liber  Conformitatnm  was  writ- 
ten in  1385.  In  Duffield's  Latin  Hymns,  the  editor  (who  contends 
with  much  zeal  for  the  ascription  to  Thomas  of  Celano)  bases  his 
strongest  argument  on  a  curious  mistake  in  the  date  of  the  Liber, 
which  he  writes,  in  the  three  places  where  he  refers  to  it,  "  1285": 
"  Thomas's  claim  to  its  authorship,"  he  says,  "  does  not  rest  on  the 
weakness  of  rival  pretensions.  In  the  year  1285,  when  Thomas 
had  been  dead  about  thirty  years  and  Dante  was  twenty  years 
old,  the  Franciscan  Bartholomew  of  Pisa  wrote  his  Liber  Confor- 
mitatnm,  in  which  he  drew  a  labored  parallel  between  the  life  oi 
Francis  of  Assisi  and  that  of  our  Lord.  Having  occasion  to  speak 
of  Celano   in  this  work,  he^  goes  on  to  describe  it  as  '  the  place 

2  "  Habes  pro  hac  sententia  .  .  .  vituperium  Sixti  Senensis,  quod  odio 
Praedicatorum  in  fratres  Minores  bene  congruere  videtur."     II,  p.  115. 


516  THE  DOLPHIN. 

whence  came  Brother  Thomas,  who  by  order  of  the  Pope  wrote 
in  polished  speech  the  first  legend  of  St.  Francis,  and  is  said  to 
have  composed  the  prose  which  is  sung  in  the  Mass  for  the  Dead : 
Dies  irae,  dies  ilia!  This  testimony  out  of  Thomas's  own  century 
is  confirmed  by  .  .  ."  The  citation  of  the  Liber,  even  in  its 
correct  date  of  1385,  is  a  strong  argument,  for  it  is  the  earliest 
source  known  for  a  mention  and  ascription  of  the  poem  ;  but  it 
is  needless  to  point  out  that  its  value  would  be  so  enormously 
increased  if  it  but  dated  one  centuiy  earlier,  as  to  constitute  it  an 
almost  irrefutable  argument  for  the  ascription  which  it  makes. 

Finally,  all  the  editors  refer  to  Luke  Wadding,  the  Franciscan, 
who  in  his  Scriptores  Ordinis  Minorum  (Rome,  1650)  ascribes  the 
poem  to  Thomas  of  Celano,  although  he  also  mentions  the  ascrip- 
tion by  others  to  St.  Bonaventure  and  Matthew  of  Acqua- Sparta, 
both  Franciscans. 

From  all  this  we  infer  that  the  poem  was  written  in  the  thir- 
teenth century — "  the  most  interesting  century  in  the  history  of 
Christendom ;"  that  it  was  of  Italian  origin,  inasmuch  as  its  earli- 
est use  was  Italian  and  also  because  of  its  "  peculiar  three-line 
stanza,  which  approximates  to  the  terza-rima  structure  of  their 
poetry,  but  is  not  found  in  poetry  of  the  Northern  nations,  except 
in  later  imitation  "  (Dr.  Thompson) ;  that  its  author  was  probably 
a  Franciscan ;  that  amongst  all  the  names  suggested  for  the  high 
honor  of  its  authorship,  that  of  Brother  Thomas  of  Celano,  the 
friend  and  biographer  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  presents  the  most 
acceptable  grounds  for  an  ascription. 

II. — Sequences  or  Proses. 

With  respect  to  the  meaning  of  the  word  "  Sequence," 
Mr.  Warren's  implied  explanation  is  not  happy.  In  the  Mass 
in  Commemoratione  omnium  Fidelium  the  Dies  Irae,  he  says, 
"forms  the  Sequence;  follows,  that  is  to  say,  the  Epistle."  It  is 
true  that  it  "  follows  the  Epistle,"  but  not  immediately ;  nor  is 
that  fact  the  reason  why  it  is  called  "  Sequence."  The  Epistle 
is  followed,  in  Festivals,  by  the  Gradual,  which,  in  turn,  is  fol- 
lowed by  Alleluias  and  a  verse  of  a  psalm  with  an  added  Alleluia, 
or  (as  in  Septuagesima  time)  by  the  Tract.  In  Paschal  time  the 
Gradual  is  omitted,  and  only  the  Alleluias  and  psalm-verse,  fol- 


CO. MMENT  ON  THE  '  'NO  TES. "  517 

lowed  by  an  Alleluia  and  another  verse,  are  sung.  Anciently, 
the  Alleluia,  whensoever  it  occurred  after  the  Gradual,  closed  in 
a  long  series  of  notes  or  continued  melody,  to  which  only  the 
final  vowel  of  Alleluia  was  sung.  This  prolongation  was  called 
"  sequentia,"  or  sequence.  "  Later  on,  however,  words  appropriate 
to  the  Festival  were  supplied  to  this  protracted  chant,  to  which 
the  name  Sequence  was  restricted.  ...  By  degrees  every 
Sunday  and  Festival  had  its  proper  Sequence,  until  the  correction 
of  the  Missal,  when  only  four  were  retained  in  use."3  Pre- 
Tridentine  missals  have  as  many  as  one  hundred  such ;  but  the 
general  reform  of  the  Missal  ordered  by  Pius  V  eliminated  all  but 
the  four  most  beautiful.  These  are  :  Victimae  paschali  landes  of 
Wipo  (eleventh  century),  for  Easter ;  the  "  Golden  Sequence," 
Veni  sancte  Spiritus,  attributed  with  most  probability  to  Inno- 
cent III,  for  Pentecost;  Lauda  Sio?i,  of  the  Angelic  Doctor,  for 
Corpus  Christi ;  (Stabat  mater  dolorosa,  of  Jacopone,  added  to  the 
Missal  about  1727,  for  the  Seven  Dolors  B.  V.  M.) ;  and  finally 
the  Dies  Irae,  which,  however,  should  scarce  be  classed  with  the 
other  four,  as  it  occurs  in  the  Mass  for  the  Dead,  which  has 
no  Alleluia,  and  therefore  should  not  in  strictness  be  styled 
"  Sequence."  In  mediaeval  Latin  the  words  sequeiitia  and  prosa 
were  practically  interchangeable ;  the  sequence  being  styled 
prose,  either  because  the  earlier  attempts  at  sequence-composition 
were  unmetrical,  although  somewhat  rhythmical  in  character  (and 
therefore  to  be  discriminated  from  the  strict  hymni),  or  because, 
as  Mr.  Rockstro  suggests,  the  rhymed  rhythmus  was  not  con- 
sidered technically  a  hym?tus,  as  it  had  not  classical  metre.  The 
former  explanation  of  prosa,  which  is  the  more  common  one,  is 
probably  the  more  correct;  for  Notker  Balbulus,  the  first  who 
adapted  words  to  the  alleluiatic  neumes,  wrote  his  sequences  in 
rhythms  of  unequal  extent,  fitting  them  word  for  note  to  the 
neumes. 

III. — Liturgical  Use. 

It  is  very  probable  that  the  Dies  Irae  was  composed  as  a 
sequence  for  the  first  Sunday  in  Advent.  u  En  effet,  cette  Prose 
roule  en  entier  sur  le  jugement  dernier,  excepte  {'invocation  Pie 

3  Amberger  :   Pastoraltheofozie,  Vol.  II. 


518  THE  DOLPHIN. 

Jesu,  qui  y  a  ete  manifestement  ajoutee,  lorsqu'on  l'adapta  pour 
les  moi  ts."  4  The  seventeen  stanzas  of  the  Roman  Missal  text  no 
doubt  constitute  the  original  form  of  the  poem  as  composed  by 
Thomas  of  Celano ;  while  the  remaining  six  lines — 

Lacrimosa  dies  ilia, 
Qua  resurget  ex  favilla 
Judicandus  homo  reus. 
Huic  ergo  parce,  Deus  ! 
Pie  Jesu  Domine 
Dona  eis  requiem 

— were  perhaps  added  to  the  hymn  to  make  it  suitable  for  a 
Requiem  Mass.  This  conjecture  is  strengthened  by  the  fact  that 
Mone5  found  in  a  Reichenau  manuscript  of  the  end  of  the  twelfth 
or  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century  a  long  series  of  verses 
or  antiphons  for  a  funeral  service,  containing  this  verse  : 

Lacrimosa  dies  ilia, 
qua  resurget  ex  favilla 
judicandus  homo  reus  ; 
tu  peccatis  parce  deus. 

He  found  also6  in  a  Karlsruhe  MS.  of  the  fourteenth  century 
these  lines  : 

Lacrimosa  dies  ilia, 
qua  resurgens  ex  favilla 
homo  reus  judicandus, 
Justus  autem  coronandus. 

Mone  points  out  that  these  verses  antedate  the  composition  of 
the  Dies  Irae,  one  of  them  being  of  the  twelfth  century  or  early 
thirteenth,  while  both  are  evidently  derived  from  some  common 
type  not  yet  discovered.  Daniel  (Vol.V,  p.  no)  considers  such 
foreshadowings,  as  collected  by  Mone,  of  the  Dies  Irae,  "  con- 
sideration dignissimas."  Trench,  in  his  Sacred  Latin  Poetry, 
gives  the  Roman  Missal  text,  with  the  exception  of  the  last  six 
lines  (beginning  Lacrimosa  and  ending  with  requiem} ;  but  while 
this  represents  in  all  probability  the  original  text,  the  Missal  text, 
with  the  exception  of  its  closing  couplet,  is  usually  given  in  full 
by  such  editors  as  March,  Coles,  the  compiler  of  Seven   Great 

4  Encyc.  TheoL,  vol.  Lidirgie,  col.  1054,  Migne. 
b  Vol.  I,  p.  406.  6  I,  p.  404. 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "NOTES/'  519 

Hymns,  etc.     March  includes  the  last  couplet  [Latin  Hymns,  p. 

156.) 

IV. — The  Latin  Texts. 

Mr.  Warren  refers  to  two  other  texts,  one  of  which  —  the 
so-called  Mantuan  Marble — prefixes  four  stanzas  of  introduction 
to  the  Dies  Irae,  dies  ilia;  while  the  other,  the  Haemmerlin  text, 
expands  the  four  lines  of  the  Lachrymosa  dies  ilia  into  six,  and 
adds  five  new  strophes.  The  Mantuan  Marble  text  is  found  in  an 
old  Lutheran  hymn-book  of  Konigsberg  (1650),  together  with 
a  German  translation  and  a  note  declaring  that  the  old  Latin 
rhyme  was  found  on  a  crucifix  ("  bei  einem  Crucifix  ")  in  the 
Church  of  St.  Francis  at  Mantua.  Mohnike  (1824)  came  upon  it 
in  the  handwriting  (dated  1676)  of  Charisius,  burgomaster  of 
Stralsund,  with  the  heading:  " Meditatio  Vetusta  et  Venusta  de 
Novissimo  Judicio  quae  Mantuae  in  aede  D.  Francisci  in  marmore 
legitur"  But  Daniel  (II,  p.  1 18),  who  plainly  doubts  the  exist- 
ence oi  the  "  marble,"  thinks  Charisius  transcribed  his  copy  from 
a  Florilegium  Magnum  of  1621,  which  contains  no  reference  to  a 
Mantuan  marble.  Mohnike,  in  a  subsequent  edition  (1836),  refers 
to  the  Variorum  in  Europa  Itinerant  Deliciae  (first  edition,  1594) 
of  Nathan  Chytraeus,  who  gives  the  text  with  the  simple  remark 
that  he  found  it  among  the  inscriptions  in  the  Church  of  St.  Francis 
at  Mantua.  Mr.  Warren  contributed  a  long  and  interesting  note 
on  the  subject  to  Mr.  Shipley's  article  in  the  Dublin  Review 
(April,  1883,  pp.  374-377) ;  and  both  hymnologists  add  a  common 
note  on  the  subject  to  the  same  Review  (July,  1883,  p.  243)  cor- 
recting some  points  of  the  essay.  We  shall  transcribe  merely  two 
paragraphs  from  Mr.  Warren's  remarks  in  the  Review  (April, 
1883,  p.  375): 

"  Father  Narcisso  Bonazzi,  Maestro  di  Capella  to  the  Bishop  of  Mantua,  has, 
upon  application,  most  obligingly  written  to  this  effect :  That  the  Church  and  Con- 
vent of  St.  Francis  were  suppressed  in  1797  (the  year  of  the  French  occupation  of 
Mantua)  ;  that  in  1811  the  church  was  desecrated  and  the  convent  was  turned  into 
a  military  arsenal ;  and  that  no  trace  of  the  slab  can  now  be  found,  neither  in  the 
churches  to  which  the  monuments  of  St.  Francis  were  removed,  nor  in  the  royal  or 
civic  museums  of  the  town. 

"  Whatever  be  the  origin  of  the  text,  it  seems  clear  that  it  was  not  from  the  pen 
of  Thomas  of  Celano.  The  style,  and  the  otiose  character  of  the  additional  verses, 
are  enough  to  decide  this.     The  few  authorities  who  have  thought  otherwise  (though 


520  THE  DOLPHIN. 

•11  of  them  cannot,  perhaps,  be  called  so)  are  Mohnike,  Dean  Stanley  {Macmillan* s 
Magazine,  December,  1868),  and  one  or  two  American  translators  of  the  hymn." 

The  Mantuan  Marble. 

Chytraeus.  Daniel. 

Quaeso  anima  fidelis,  Cogita  (Quaeso)  anima  fidelis 

Ah  quid  respondere  velis,  Ad  quid  respoudere  velis 

Christo  venturo  de  coelis,  Christo  venturo  de  coelis. 

Cum  a  te  poscet  rationem,  Cum  deposcet  rationem 

Ob  boni  omissionem,  Ob  boni  omissionem 

Et  mali  commissionem  ?  Ob  mali  commissionem. 

Dies  ilia,  dies  irae,  Dies  ilia,  dies  irae, 

Quam  conemur  praevenire,  Quam  conemur  praevenire 

Obviamque  Deo  ire  Obviamque  Deo  ire. 

Seria  contritione  Seria  contritione 

Gratiae  apprehensione  Gratiae  apprehensione 

Vitae  emendatione.  Vitae  emendatione. 

Then  follow  the  first  sixteen  stanzas  of  the  Roman  Missal  text 
with  but  a  few  minor  discrepancies  (such  as  "  Nil  incultum,"  Nil 
inultum  ;  "  venisti  lassus,"  sedisti  lassus  ;  etc.)  with  the  exception 
that  "  Teste  David  "  of  Chytraeus  and  the  Missal  is  changed  into 
"  teste  Petro "  of  Daniel's  text.  The  remaining  stanzas  of  the 
Missal  are  omitted,  and  the  Mantuan  text  ends  with : 

Consors  ut  beatitatis 
Vivam  cum  justificatis 
In  aevum  aeternitatis. 

Is  Thomas  of  Celano  responsible  for  these  four  introductory 
strophes  ?  As  pointed  out  above,  Mohnike  argues  for  such  as- 
cription, while  Dean  Stanley  and  Dr.  Coles  appear  to  share  his 
view.  But  it  is  incredible  that  the  man  who  could  write  the  Dies 
Irae  could  also  have  produced  stanzas  so  lacking  in  virility  of 
thought  and  expression ;  so  replete  with  halting  rhythm ;  so 
guilty,  within  such  a  small  compass,  of  elisions  (Cogita,  anima 
fidelis;  Gratiae  apprehensione)  and  hiatuses  (Ob boni  omissionem, 
Vitae  emendatione,  Obviamque  Deo  ire).  The  third  strophe  is  a 
poor  echo  of  the  Missal's  first :  "  ex  prima  Thomae  misere  con- 
suta  et  recocta,"  says  Daniel,  who  further  points  out  that  the 
third  and  fourth  strophes  contain  but  jejune  expositions  of  doc- 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "NOTES."  52 1 

trine,  and  seem  rather  to  maim  than  to  sing  the  language  of 
the  Schools,  "  terminos  scholae  magis  claudicare  quam  cantare 
videntur."  Even  Dr.  Coles,  who  in  his  preface  gives  a  new 
English  rendering  of  the  four  strophes,  writes  :  "  That  the  abbre- 
viation of  the  poem,  by  the  omission  of  the  four  opening 
stanzas,  adds  greatly  to  its  general  and  still  more  to  its  lyric  effec- 
tiveness, there  can  be  no  doubt."  He  continues,  rather  mildly,  to 
remark  that  "  the  rejected  verses,  partaking  of  a  quiet  and  medi- 
tative character,  impair  the  force  of  the  lyric  element."  With 
greater  vigor  of  utterance  the  editor  of  Seven  Great  Hymns  re- 
jects the  additions  to  the  Missal  text :  "  There  have  been  stanzas 
prefixed  to  the  hymn  and  others  added  ;  but,  in  its  great  strength, 
it  has  shaken  off  all  such  spurious  additions  "  (7th  £d.,  p.  49). 

This  last  remark  leads  us  directly  to  consider  the  "  spurious 
addition  "  known  as  the  Haemmerlin  text.  Felix  Haemmerlin  (or 
Haemmerlein,  Latinized  into  Malleolus),  who  died  circa  1457,  left 
behind  him  MSS.  amongst  which  was  found  a  copy  of  the  Dies 
Irae  with  additional  stanzas  which  were,  thinks  Mr.  Warren,  un- 
doubtedly his  own  composition.  They  were  published  by  Leon- 
hard  Meister,  a  Swiss  writer,  who  "  put  forward  an  absurd  claim 
for  Haemmerlein  to  have  written  the  whole  hymn."  Daniel  thinks 
the  additional  verses  languid  and  superfluous  :  "  Nemo  non  videt 
strophis  quae  ecclesiasticum  carmen  excedunt  nihil  inesse  nisi 
languorem  ac  priorum  versuum  repetitionem "  (II,  p.  120). 
For  the  sake  of  clearness,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  give  in  this 
place  the  exact  text  of  the  Roman  Missal  in  one  column,  and  in 
another  the  variant  readings  of  the  other  texts,  concluding  with 
the  Haemmerlin  stanzas.  It  will  be  immediately  seen  that  where- 
ever  a  variation  from  the  "  Received  "  or  Missal  text  occurs,  it  is 
to  introduce  but  a  change  for  the  worse ;  and  that,  as  Dr.  Coles 
admits,  "  in  its  present  form,  all  is  vehement  stir  and  movement, 
from  the  grand  and  startling  abruptness  of  its  opening,  to  the 
sweet  and  powerful  pathos  of  its  solemn  and  impressive  close." 

ROMAN  MISSAL  TEXT.  VARIANT  TEXTS. 

TV  ,.       .,.  x  Mantuan  :  Petro.    2  The  French  missals 

Dies  irae,  dies  ilia  .  _,   .  D     __  Qs 

'  (e.   g.,    Pans,    1738;  Metz,   1778)  omit 

Solvet  saeclum  in  favilla,  the  third  line  and  interpose  between  the 

Teste  David1  cum  Sibylla.2  first  and  second  Cruets  expand  ens  vexitta. 


522 


THE 


Quantus3  tremor  est  futurus 
Quando  judex  est  venturus 
Cuncta  stricte  discussurus  ! 

Tuba  mirum  spargens*  sonum 
Per  sepulchra  regionum 
Coget  omnes  ante  thronum. 

Mors6  stupebit  at  natura, 
Cum  resurget6  creatura, 
Judicanti  responsura. 

Liber  scriptusproferetur,7 
In  quo  totum  continetur, 
Unde  mundus  judicetur. 

Judex  ergo  cum  sedebit8 
Quidquid  latet  apparebit,9 
Nil  inultum10  remanebit. 

Quid  sum  miser  tunc11  dicturus. 
Quem  patronum  rogaturus, 
Cum  vix12  Justus  sit  securus  ? 

Rex  tremendae  majestatis, 
Qui  salvandos13  salvas  gratis, 
Salva  me,  fons  pietatis  !u 

Recordare,  Jesu15  pie, 
Quod  sum16  causa  tuae  viae  : 
Ne  me  perdas  ilia  die. 

Quaerens  me  sedisti17  lassus, 
Redemisti  crucem18  passus : 
Tantus  labor  non  sit  cassus. 

Juste  Judex  ultionis, 
Donum  fac  remissionis 
Ante  diem  rationis. 

Ingemisco  tanquam  reus,19 
Culpa  rubet  vultus  meus  ; 
Supplicanti  parce,  Deus. 


DOLPHIN. 

3  Haemmerlin  :    Tantus. 

4  Lubeck  Missal  (1480)  :  sparget. 


5  Haemmerlin  :   Mens  stupescit. 

6  Haemm.  :  resurgit. 

7  Haemm.  :   Liber   scriptus  tunc  docetur, 


8  Augustinian  Missal  (1497)  :  censebit. 

9  Haemm.  :  comparebit. 

10  Mant.  and  Haemm.  :  incultum. 

11  Mant.  :  turn. 


12  Mant.  :   Quu/n   nee ;    Haemm.  :    Dum 
vix. 


13  Missal  of  Venice  (1479) :  salvando. 

14  Koenigs.  G.-B.  :  bonitatis. 

15  Haemm.  :  Jesum. 

1G  Mant.  (Charisius) :  sim  ;  Ven.  Missal 
quia  sum. 


17  Mant.  (Charisius)  :  venisti ;  Haemm. 

fuisti. 

18  Mant.,  Haemm.,  Lubeck  Missal  et  al 

cruce. 


u  Chytraeus  :  vere  reus. 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "NOTES." 


523 


Qui  Mariam20  absolvisti 
Et  latronem  exaudisti, 
Mihi  quoque  spem  dedisti. 

Preces  meae  non  sunt  dignae, 
Sed  tu  bonus21  fac  benigne 
Ne  perenni  cremer  igne. 

Inter  oves  locum  praesta 
Et  ab  hoedis  me  sequestra, 
Statuens  in  parte  dextra. 2S 

Confutatis  maledictis,23 
Flammis  acribus  addictis, 
Voca24  me  cum  benedictis. 

Oro  supplex  et  acclinis,'25 
Cor  contritum  quasi  cinis, 
Gere  curam  mei  finis. 

Lacrimosa  dies  ilia 
Qua  resurget  ex  favilla 
Judicandus  homo  reus  ■ 
Huic  ergo  parce  Deus. 

Pie  Jesu  Domine, 
Dona  eis  requiem. 

(The  Haemmerlin  text,  given  in 
the  opposite  column,  omits  the 
last  couplet,  expands  the  preced- 
ing four  lines  into  six,  and  adds 
five  entirely  new  stanzas.  Die  ilia 
for  dies  ilia  is  unhappy  as  a  change, 
for  it  creates  a  hiatus — something 
unknown  throughout  the  text  of 
the  Roman  Missal  hymn.  To  say 
nothing  of  the  languid  movement 
of  the  added  verses,  the  broken 
rhythm  of  Esto  semper  adjutor 
metis,  and  the  forbidding  pronun- 
ciation requisite  for    fitting    Sed 


Metz  Missal  :  Peccatricem. 


21  Haemm. 
bone. 


bonas :    Chytraeus  et    al. 


22  Chyt.  :  Statuens  vie  parte  ;  K.G.-B  : 
Me  loces;  Lubeck  M.,;  Statuens  me 
in  parte  dextra. 

rA  Haemm.  :  Are  conjungar  maledictis. 

2*  K.  G.-B.  :  Loca. 
25  Haemm.  :  a  minis. 


At  this  point  the  Haemmerlin  expansion 
begins,  by  making  triplets  of  the  Lacri- 
mosa and  Judicandtis  couplets. 

Lacrimosa  die  ilia 
Cum  resurget  ex  favilla, 
Tanquam  ignis  ex  scintilla, 

Judicandus  homo  reus  ; 
Huic  ergo  parce  Deus, 
Esto  semper  adjutor  meus. 

The  Haemmerlin  addsthe  following  : 

Quando  coeli  sunt  movendi 
Dies  adsunt  tunc  tremendi, 
Nullum  tempus  poenitendi : 

Sed  salvatis  laeta  dies 
Et  damnatis  nulla  quies 
Sed  daemonum  effigies. 

O  tu  Deus  majestatis, 
Alme  candor  trinitatis, 
Nunc  conjunge  cum  beatis. 


524  THE  DOLPHIN. 


daemonum  effigies  to   any   rhyth-  Vitam  meam  fac  felicem 

mical    swing,    alike    plead    loudly  Propter  tuani  genitricera, 

.,  ,  .    ,.  r  [esse  floreru  et  radicem. 

against  any  possible  ascription  of 

these     added     strophes     to     the     n  ,. 

r  Fraesta  nobis  tunc  levamen, 

author— whoever     he     may    have       Dulce  nostrum  fac  certamen, 
been — of  the  Dies  Irae.  )  Ut  clamemus  omnes,  Amen  ! 

V. — Early  English  Versions. 

The  first  known  translation  into  English  was  that  of  Joshua 
Sylvester  (i 563-1618),  a  Puritan  writer,  translator  from  the 
French,  and  author  of  "  Tobacco  Battered  and  the  Pipes  Shat- 
tered by  a  Volley  of  Holy  Shot  Thundered  from  Mount  Heli- 
con." This  title  may  not  promise  well  for  his  translation  (published 
in  1 62 1  at  the  end  of  his  translation  of  DuBartas'  Divine  Weeks), 
which,  however,  has  the  merit  of  being  not  only  the  first  but  the 
type  for  more  modern  imitation.  Although  perhaps  well-known, 
it  is  not  very  accessible  to  readers,  and  a  few  stanzas  from  it  will 
not  be  amiss  in  this  connection.  It  is  written  in  very  curious 
metre — the  first,  second,  fourth  and  fifth  lines  of  each  stanza  being 
trochaic  ys  and  the  third  and  sixth  lines  iambic  8s.  In  the  first 
two  stanzas  is  given  a  version  of  the  Mantuan  Marble's  intro- 
ductory four  strophes — an  example  followed  by  Drummond,  Dr. 
Irons,  and  Dr.  Coles.     The  title  runs : 

A    HOLY    PREPARATION    TO    A    JOYFUL    RESURRECTION. 

Deare,  deare  Soule,  Awake,  awake, 

Ah  !  what  answer  wilt  thou  make 
When  Christ  in  glory  shall  appear? 

When  Hee  comes  to  take  Account 

Of  thy  Sins  that  hourely  mount, 
By  acting  or  neglecting  heer. 

Of  that  irefull  Day  to  come 

(That  red  dreadfull  Day  of  Doome) 
Th'  affrighting  Terrour  to  prevent, 

Bleeding  tears  let  heart  distill ; 

Right  reform  thy  crooked  will ; 
But  speedily  Repent,  Repent. 

Then  begins  the  Dies  Irac  proper,  of  which  the  first  stanza  will 
suffice  for  illustration  : 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "NOTES."  $2$ 

That,  That  dreaded  Day  of  Ire, 

Shall  dissolve  the  World  in  Fire  ; 
As  holy  Prophets  have  foretold. 

Oh  !  What  horrour  will  be  then, 

When  the  Lord  shall  come  agen, 
Our  deeds  of  Darkness  to  unfold  ! 

Of  Crashaw's  version  (in  his  Steps  to  the  Temple,  1646) — "the 
earliest  rendering  of  Dies  Irae  from  the  devotion  of  a  Catholic  " 
— Mr.  Shipley  says :  "  The  version  is  rugged  in  character  and 
irregular  in  metre,  and  is  more  of  an  imitation  of  the  original  than 
a  translation ;  at  least  in  some  of  its  stanzas.  It  contains,  how- 
ever, much  delicate  play  of  thought  and  expression,  in  language 
and  idea,  and  in  certain  parts  is  touchingly  beautiful."  Dr.  Schaff, 
although  a  Protestant  clergyman  as  well  as  hymnologist,  declares 
that  in  strength  no  version  compares  with  Crashaw's;  and  the 
editor  of  Seven  Great  Hymns,  who  prints  his  version  among  the 
seven  translations  selected  for  illustration,  repeats  the  thought  of 
Dr.  Schaff,  in  the  judgment  that  "no  translation  surpasses 
Crashaw's  in  strength,  but  the  form  of  his  stanza  and  the  measure 
of  his  verse  are  least  like  those  of  the  original."  The  first  three 
stanzas  will  serve  to  show  both  the  strength  of  the  version  and 
the  wide  limits  of  rendering  which  it  vindicates  to  itself: 

Hear'st  thou,  my  soul,  what  serious  things 
Both  the  Psalm  and  Sibyl  sings 
Of  a  sure  Judge,  from  whose  sharp  ray 
The  world  in  flames  shall  fly  away  ! 

O  that  Fire  !  before  whose  face 
Heaven  and  earth  shall  find  no  place  : 
O  those  Eyes !  whose  angry  light 
Must  be  the  day  of  that  dread  night. 

O  that  Trump  !  whose  blast  shall  run 
An  even  round  with  th'  circling  sun, 
And  urge  the  murmuring  graves  to  bring 
Pale  mankind  forth  to  meet  his  King. 

His  rendering  of  the  last  stanza  of  the  original  hymn  : 

Oro  supplex  et  acclinis, 
Cor  contritum  quasi  cinis, 
Gere  curam  mei  finis — 

is  not  only  pathetic  and  lovely  in  the  extreme,  but  was  clearly  the 


526  THE  DOLPHIN. 

source  of  Roscommon's  inspiration  in  the  rendering  of  that  stanza. 
Crashaw  translates : 

O,  hear  a  suppliant  heart  all  crush'd, 
And  crumbled  into  contrite  dust ! 
My  hope,  my  fear — my  Judge,  my  Friend  ! 
Take  charge  of  me  and  of  my  end  ! 

The  Earl  of  Roscommon's  version  (if  indeed  it  be  his,  and  not 
Dryden's,  as  Mr.  Shipley  contends  with  much  acuteness)  trans- 
lates : 

Prostrate  my  contrite  heart  I  rend, — 
My  God,  my  Father,  and  my  Friend, 
Do  nor  forsake  me  in  my  end  ! 

Besides  Sylvester,  Drummond  of  Hawthorn  den  represents  Prot- 
estant interest  in  the  hymn,  in  the  way  of  translation,  in  the  seven- 
teenth century ;  and  besides  Crashaw,  examples  of  the  Catholic 
interest  are:  a  version  in  the  Rosarists'  Daily  Exercises  (1657); 
one  by  James  Dymock,  Clergyman,  in  the  Sacrifice  of  the  Nciv 
Law  (1687);  one  (anonymous)  in  the  Follozving  of  Christ  (1694). 
The  seventeenth  century  witnessed  eight  versions  into  English  ; 
the  eighteenth — that  century  which,  philosophizing  itself  into 
idiocy,  finally  "  blew  its  brains  out,"  as  Carlyle  remarks,  in  the 
French  Revolution — counts  only  three  recorded  versions  ;  and  the 
British  versions,  beginning  with  Scott's  fragment  in  the  Lay,  made 
in  the  nineteenth  century,  number  fifteen  before  the  year  1841 — the 
year,  that  is,  of  the  first  American  translation.  Since  that  date, 
the  activity  in  translation  has  been  prodigious  both  in  the  British 
Isles  and  in  America.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  a  complete  list  of 
these  may  soon  be  compiled  and  published. 

VI. — Metrical  Forms. 

Mr.  Warren  is  nowhere  more  interesting  than  in  the  discus- 
sion of  the  question  of  the  metrical  and  stanzaic  form  which 
translations  should  follow.  Briefly,  he  considers  (1)  the  rhymed 
triplet  stanza  necessary;  (2)  double  rhymes  impracticable;  (3) 
trochaic  or  iambic  metre  a  matter  of  taste — although  he  prefers 
iambic. 

He  thinks  triplets  a  necessity  for  the  reason  that  a  version 
"  must  have  these  to  have  anything  of  the  original  peculiar  char- 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "NOTES."  $27 

acter ;  if  it  have  them  not  ...  it  cannot  have  the  indescrib- 
able grandness  and  solemnity  which  they  give  to  the  original ; 
cannot,  in  short,  be  anything  near  that  wonderful  creation  which 
the  hymn  is  now  universally  allowed  to  be."  Versions  in  other 
stanzaic  forms  may  be,  he  grants,  fine  poems,  but  cannot  fairly 
be  considered  translations.  Sylvester's  and  Crashaw's  versions, 
from  which  we  have  already  drawn  illustrations,  were  in  sestet 
and  quatrain  form  respectively  (the  latter  being  in  reality,  how- 
ever, in  pairs  of  couplets,  as  the  rhyme  shows).  Sir  Walter 
Scott's  fragment  is  in  stricter  quatrain  form : 

That  day  of  wrath,  that  dreadful  day, 
When  heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away, 
What  hope  shall  be  the  sinner's  stay, 
How  shall  he  meet  that  dreadful  day  ? 

Canon  Husenbeth  {Missal  for  the  Laity,  1831)  used  the  sestet, 
with  varying  lengths  of  verse  : 

The  dreadful  day,  the  day  of  ire 
Shall  kindle  the  avenging  fire 

Around  the  expiring  world  ; 
And  earth,  as  Sybils  said  of  old, 
And  as  the  prophet-king  foretold, 

Shall  be  in  ruin  hurled. 

Dean  Stanley  {Macmillaris  Magazine,  Dec,  1868)  used  continu- 
ous couplets  in  sestet  form  : 

Day  of  wrath,  O  dreadful  day, 
When  this  world  shall  pass  away, 
And  the  heavens  together  roll, 
Shrivelling  like  a  parched  scroll, 
Long  foretold  by  saint  and  sage, 
David's  harp  and  Sybil's  page. 

So,  too,  Lord  Macaulay  {Christian  Observer,  1826);  "O"  {Chris- 
tian Remembrancer,  1825);  Abrahall  {Ibid.,  1868),  who,  how- 
ever, has  trochaic  rhyming. 

Dr.  Coles  has  one  of  his  many  versions  in  couplets  joined  into 
quatrain  form : 

That  day,  that  awful  day,  the  last, 
Result  and  sum  of  all  the  Past, 
Great  necessary  day  of  doom, 
When  wrecking  fires  shall  all  consume  ! 


528  THE  DOLPHIN. 

A  very  peculiar  metre  for  the  hymn  is  that  of  R.  D.  Williams, 
{Manual for  Sisters  of  Charity,  1S48)  : 

Woe  is  the  day  of  ire 
Shrouding  the  earth  in  fire — 
Sybil's  and  David's  lyre 

Dimly  foretold  it — 
Strictly  the  guilty  land, 
By  the  avenger  scanned, 
Smitten,  aghast  shall  stand 

Still,  to  behold  it. 

Nearly  all  the  translations,  however,  are  in  rhymed  triplets,  the 
trochaic  metre  having  a  great  preponderance  over  the  iambic 
(doubtless  to  secure  greater  resemblance  to  the  trochaic  feet  of 
the  original),  although  a  large  minority  of  the  trochaic  renderings 
have  single  rhyme.  The  first  translation  into  trochaic  eights  was 
that  of  the  Rev.  Joel  Chandler  {Hymns  of  the  Primitive  Church, 
1837).  The  trochaic  sevens  may  be  illustrated  by  the  version 
of  Dymock  (1687),  and  the  iambic  eights  by  that  of  the  Rosarists 
(1657).  Their  initial  stanza  served  as  a  type  of  rendering  of  the 
first  strophe  of  the  Latin  for  many  other  translators.  Both,  as 
has  been  said,  are  Catholic  versions : 

Rosarists.  Dymock. 

That  day  of  wrath,  that  dreadful  day  Day  of  wrath,  that  dreadful  day, 

Shall  all  the  world  in  ashes  lay,  Shall  the  world  in  ashes  lay, 

As  David  and  Sybilla  say.  David  and  the  Sybils  say. 

In  a  list  of  versions  contributed  to  the  London  Athenceum  in 
1890  by  Mr.  Warren  (comprising  86  British  and  91  American) 
I  find  of  triplet  versions  in  iambic  8s,  19  British  and  13  American; 
in  trochaic  7s,  20  British  and  ^American;  in  trochaic  8s,  29 
British  and  41  American.  We  thus  have  70  versions  in  the  exact 
trochaic  metre  of  the  original ;  34  versions  in  trochaic  7s,  the  next 
nearest  approach  to  it;  and  32  in  iambic  8s.  As  the  metrical 
form  recedes  from  that  of  the  original,  the  number  of  translations 
decreases.  And  it  thus  appears  that  if  "  authority "  have  any 
weight  as  an  argument,  a  version  should  be  in  the  exact  metre 
of  the  original — a  view  that  Mr.  Warren  has,  as  we  have  seen, 
strongly  combated. 

In  general  it  may  be  said  that  any  translation  should,  as  far  as 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "NOTES."  529 

possible  to  the  genius  of  an  alien  tongue,  imitate  an  original  in  its 
complete  form.  In  the  translation  of  a  recognized  masterpiece  of 
literature,  whose  cadences  have  sounded  in  many  ears  through 
many  ages,  the  duty  of  close  imitation  seems  to  be  the  more 
obligatory'.  In  addition  to  this,  the  metre  of  the  Dies  Irae  has 
not  merely  become,  through  its  frequent  liturgical  use,  a  "  haunt- 
ing memory "  in  all  ears ;  but  it  was  singularly  adapted  to  the 
emotional  content  of  the  "  Hymn  of  the  Ages."  Guericke,  bor- 
rowing from  Fred.  v.  Meyer,  compared  the  triple  rhyme  to  blow 
after  blow  of  a  hammer  striking,  as  it  were,  the  innermost  soul 
until  it  quivers  with  the  repeated  impact.  "  Who  does  not  feel," 
asks  Daniel,  "  how  aptly  the  rhythm  is  fitted  to  the  argument  ? 
how  marvellously,  like  the  resurgent  billows  of  the  sea,  the  verses 
beat  against  the  ear  ?  and,  finally,  what  sober  dignity  the  hymn 
gains  from  the  ternary  rhyming  ?"  To  him,  every  word  in  the 
grand  hymn  seems  a  thunderstroke — "  quot  sunt  verba  tot  pon- 
dera,  immo  tonitrua."  Dean  Trench  speaks  of  "  the  metre  so 
grandly  devised,  of  which  I  remember  no  other  example,  fitted 
though  it  has  here  shown  itself  for  bringing  out  some  of  the 
noblest  powers  of  the  Latin  language."  Dr.  W.  R.  Williams 
says :  "  Combining  somewhat  of  the  rhythm  of  classical  Latin 
with  the  rhymes  of  the  mediaeval  Latin,  treating  of  a  theme  full 
of  awful  sublimity,  and  grouping  together  the  most  startling 
imagery  of  Scripture  as  to  the  last  Judgment,  and  throwing  this 
into  yet  stronger  relief  by  the  barbaric  simplicity  of  the  style  in 
which  it  is  set,  and  adding  to  all  these  its  full  and  trumpet-like 
cadences  .  .  ."  Dr.  Coles,  a  physician,  appropriately  com- 
pares the  rhythm  to  the  beating  of  the  heart :  "  Underneath  every 
word  and  syllable  a  living  heart  throbs  and  pulsates.  The  very 
rhythm,  or  that  alternate  elevation  and  depression  of  the  voice 
which  prosodists  call  the  arsis  and  the  thesis,  one  might  almost 
fancy  were  synchronous  with  the  contraction  and  the  dilatation  of 
the  heart." 

A  more  formal  declaration  is  that  of  General  Dix,  whose  ver- 
sion was  made  at  Fortress  Monroe  during  the  gloomiest  period  of 
the  Civil  War.  It  is  in  the  trochaic  eights,  for  which  he  contends  : 
"  A  production  universally  acknowledged  to  have  no  superior  of 
its  class,  should  be  as  literally  rendered  as  the  structure  of  the 


530  THE  DOLPHIN. 

language  into  which  it  is  translated  will  admit.  Moreover,  no 
translation  can  be  complete  which  does  not  conform  to  the  orig- 
inal in  its  rhythmic  quantities.  The  music  of  the  Dies  Irae  is  as  old 
as  the  hymn,  if  not  older;  and  with  those  who  are  familiar  with 
both,  they  are  inseparably  connected  in  thought.  To  satisfy  the 
exactions  of  such  minds,  the  cadences  must  be  the  same."  Mor- 
gan Dix,  in  his  Memoirs  of  his  father,  gives  (Vol.  II,  p.  236)  sev- 
eral high  appreciations  of  this  translation  (from  Wilkie  Collins, 
George  Ticknor,  Brantz  Mayer,  etc.),  and  among  them  one  from 
Bayard  Taylor,  containing  a  pertinent  observation  which,  as  the 
strongly  expressed  conviction  of  a  poet  and  translator,  may  be 
quoted  in  this  connection  :  "  I  have  always  had  a  special  admira- 
tion for  the  majestic  poem,  and  have  heretofore  sought  in  vain  to 
find  an  adequate  translation.  Those  which  reproduced  the  spirit 
neglected  the  form,  and  vice  versa.  There  can  be  no  higher 
praise  for  yours  than  to  say  that  it  preserves  both.  It  has  always 
been  an  article  of  my  literary  creed  that  the  rhythmical  character 
of  a  poem  is  a  part  of  its  life,  and  must  be  retained,  to  its  nicest 
cadence,  by  the  translator."  Dr.  Coles,  eight  of  whose  sixteen 
versions  are  in  trochaic  eights,  admits  the  "  difficuly  involved  in 
triplicating  the  double  rhymes,  owing  to  the  poverty  of  our  lan- 
guage in  words  suitable  for  the  purpose,  without  practising  awk- 
ward and  inelegant  inversions."  Dr.  Johnson,  commenting  on 
Young's  thesis  that  the  pleasure  of  rhyme  arises  from  the  sense 
of  difficulty  overcome,  somewhat  grimly  says  :  "  But  then  the 
writer  must  take  care  that  the  difficulty  is  overcome  ;  that  is,  he 
must  make  rhyme  consist  with  as  perfect  sense  and  expression  as 
would  be  expected,  if  he  were  perfectly  free  from  that  shackle." 
Lowell,  in  the  Biglow  Papers,  goes  still  farther  when  he  makes 
Parson  Wilbur  counsel  the  young  poet :  "  Unless  one's  thought 
pack  more  neatly  in  verse  than  in  prose,  it  is  wiser  to  refrain." 
Mr.  Warren  thinks  double  rhymes  "  extremely  difficult  to  manage 
at  ail  well,"  and  illustrates  his  view  with  abundant  quotation.  The 
lure,  nevertheless,  is  so  powerful — as  witness  the  large  number  of 
versions  with  triple  trochaic  rhymes — that  a  lover  of  the  magical 
rhythm  of  Dies  Irae  will  live  in  hope   that  the  quest  may  not 

prove  wholly  fruitless. 

H.  T.  Henry. 
Ovevhrook  Seminary,  Pa. 


STUDIES  AND  CONFERENCES.  59 1 

He  would  recall  the  forest  dense  and  dark,  where  the  gray- 
chief  and  gifted  seer  worshipped  the  god  of  thunder,  whilst  the 
full  river's  flowing  waters  filled  the  fresh  wood  with  grateful 
melody. 

Not  so  does  the  poet  describe  the  visit  of  the  white  man  whose 
sires  upon  England's  pleasant  shores 

Left  not  their  churchyards  unadorned  with  flowers 
Or  blossoms  ;  and  indulgent  to  the  strong 
And  natural  dread  of  man's  last  home,  the  grave, 
Its  frost  and  silence — they  disposed  around, 
To  soothe  the  melancholy  spirit  that  dwelt 
Too  sadly  on  life's  close,  the  forms  and  hues 
Of  vegetable  beauty. 

He  mentions  the  plants  that  speak  of  a  source  of  energy  be- 
neath the  grave,  symbolizing  life's  ways  and  hopes.     Thus 

.      .      .     On  the  infant's  little  bed, 
Wet  at  its  planting  with  maternal  tears, 
Emblem  of  early  sweetness,  early  death, 
Nestled  the  lowly  primrose. 

The  riper  age  of  youth  is  pictured  in  the  spot 

Where  the  sweet  maiden,  in  her  blossoming  years, 
Cut  off,  was  laid  with  streaming  eyes  ;  and  hands 
That  trembled  as  they  placed  her  there  :  the  rose 
Sprung  modest,  on  bowed  stalk,  and  better  spoke 
Her  graces,  than  the  proudest  monument. 

A  kindred  antithesis,  which  sometimes  appears  like  parallelism, 
may  be  discovered  in  such  compositions  on  death  as  The  Knighfs 
Epitaph  and  Monument  Mountain ;  The  Death  of  Aiathar  and 
The  Disinterred  Warrior;  "No  man  knoweth  his  grave"  and 
"Blessed  are  they  that  mourn;"  The  Hymn  to  Death  and  The 
Burial  of  Love,  The  Two  Graves  and  The  Conqueror  s  Grave. 

But  throughout  these  verses  there  ring  notes  of  contentment 
with  the  present  and  hopefulness  in  the  better  future  through 
God's  mercy,  which  are  hardly  to  be  found  in  the  work  of  models 
whom  Cullen  Bryant  had  at  one  time  or  other  admired.  Kirke 
White,  for  example,  had  written  on  immortality  in  his  Atha?zatos, 
and  he  had  written  on  death  in  Thanatos  and  other  poems,  but  his 
verses  were  but  the  echoes  of  that  discontent  which  finds  fuller 


592  THE  DOLPHIN. 

expression  in  the  unfinished  verses  on  Despair.  Our  poet  on  the 
contrary  loves  the  brighter,  we  should  say  the  Catholic,  views  of 
life.  Hence  he  was  fond  of  the  Spanish  writers,  as  his  transla- 
tions from  Leonardo  de  Argensola  and  from  Luis  Ponce  de 
Leon,  notably  the  latter's  The  Life  of  the  Blessed,  among  his 
religious  pieces  attest.  In  this  poem  Bryant  pictures  "  The  Good 
Shepherd  "  with  all  his  flock  around  him,  while 

From  his  sweet  lute  flow  forth 
Immortal  harmonies,  of  power  to  still 

All  passions  born  of  earth, 
And  draw  the  ardent  will 
Its  destiny  of  goodness  to  fulfil. 

The  poet  sees  him  in  the  region  of  life  and  light  where  after 
death  the  good  whose  earthly  toils  are  over  rest ;  where  neither 
frost  nor  heat  may  blight  the  vernal  beauty  of  the  fertile  shores, 
yielding  their  blessed  fruits  for  evermore.  Hence  he  prays  that 
he  may  be  of  that  company  and  there  hear  the  shepherd's  sweet 
invitation. 

Might  but  a  little  part, 
A  wandering  breath  of  that  high  melody, 

Descend  into  my  heart, 
And  change  it  till  it  be 
Transformed  and  swallowed  up,  oh  love,  in  thee  ! 

Ah  !  then  my  soul  should  know, 
Beloved,   where  thou  liest  at  noon  of  day, 

And  from  this  place  of  woe 
Released,  should  take  its  way 
To  mingle  with  thy  flock  and  never  stray. 


OUR  "DIES  IEAE  "  CONTRIBUTIONS. 

It  is  now  more  than  twenty-one  years  since  Mr.  Orby  Shipley 
contributed  to  the  Dublin  Review  an  elaborate  essay  entitled 
"  Fifty  Versions  of  Dies  Irae"  which  served  both  to  illustrate  the 
power  exercised  by  the  great  hymn  over  the  intellects  and  hearts 
of  its  many  votaries  and  to  point  the  way  to  an  approximate 
finality  in  the  matter  of  translation. 

In  the  course  of  that  admirable  paper  on  comparative  hym- 
nology  its  author  several  times  acknowledged  indebtedness  for 
helpful  references  to  an  unnamed  friend  "who  contemporaneously 


STUDIES  AND  CONFERENCES.  593 

and  unknown  to  him  has  made  a  far  larger  collection  of  versions 
than  the  present  one — a  collection  which  includes  all  the  transla- 
tions from  America  and  two  fresh  British  ones,  one  from  the 
collector's  own  pen."  l  The  author  points  (p.  51)  to  the  fact  that 
"  two  early  renderings  have  been  discovered  by  the  research  of 
another,  and  are  left  for  the  discoverer  himself  to  make  public," — 
a  reference  to  the  same  collector.  Further  on  (p.  74)  he  acknowl- 
edges indebtedness  "  for  a  copy  of  the  translated  sequence  con- 
tained in  the  edition  of  the  Following  of  Christ,  named  and  quoted 
above,"  to  the  "  friend  who  has  made  Dies  Irae  a  study  for  years." 
He  remarks  that  "  as  this  rendering  will  probably  be  published  at 
no  great  interval  of  time,  and  as  the  credit  of  discovery  belongs 
elsewhere,  but  a  slender  use  of  it  has  been  made  in  this  place." 
Finally,  in  the  continuation  of  Mr.  Shipley's  paper  in  the  April 
issue  of  the  same  Review,  there  is  (pp.  374-7)  a  long  quotation 
from  a  letter  of  the  "  friend  who  has  made  Dies  Irae  the  study  of 
years,  and  of  whose  collection  of  English  translations — numbering 
considerably  more  than  one  hundred — there  is  now  every  prospect 
of  the  publication."  This  letter  from  the  "  friend  "  ends  with  a 
footnote  signed  "  C.  F.  S.  W." 

The  hope  and  expectation  thus  expressed  and  reiterated,  that 
the  results  of  the  long  labors  of  "  C.F.S.W."  should  be  published, 
was  destined  never  to  be  realized.  Although  the  grandeur  of 
Dies  Irae  might  well  merit  such  a  tribute,  the  scheme  was  in  truth 
somewhat  monumental  in  character ;  for  a  collection  of  "consider- 
ably more  than  one  hundred "  translations  would  have  made  a 
volume  of  no  mean  dimensions.  Besides  this  difficulty  of  publica- 
tion, such  a  collection  must  contain  not  a  little  dross  mixed  with 
the  pure  gold ;  and,  withal,  would  in  a  few  years  be  very  much  out 
of  date,  as  would  be  seen  immediately  by  glancing  at  the  table  of 
English  and  American  versions  published  by  "  C.F.S.W."  in  the 
London  Athenceum,  July  26,  1890.  That  indefatigable  gleaner 
had,  in  the  less  than  eight  years  separating  the  appearance  of  Mr. 
Shipley's  article  in  the  Dublin  Review  from  that  of  the  Athenczum 
tabulation,  been  able  to  swell  his  list  from  "  considerably  more 
than  one  hundred  "  to  one  hundred  and  fifty-five.  More  anon 
of  this  excellent  list  published   by  Mr.  C.  F.  S.  Warren  in  the 

1  Dublin  Review,  Jan.,  1883,  p.  54. 


594  THE  DOLPHIN. 

Athenceum.  Needless  to  say,  many  translations  have  appeared 
since  that  date,  while  it  is  fair  to  surmise  that  a  comparison  of  this 
list  with  the  table  given  in  Julian's  Dictionary  of  Hymnology,  as 
also  with  the  bibliography  of  Dies  Irae  in  English  version,  com- 
piled by  Mr.  John  Edmands,  the  librarian  of  the  Mercantile 
Libraiy  of  Philadelphia,  and  issued  in  1884,  would  discover  some 
few  translations  passed  over  by  one  or  other  collector.  It  is  our 
hope  to  make  such  a  detailed  comparison,  and  to  bring  the  tabula- 
tion down  to  date,  should  leisure  and  the  kind  assistance  of  cor- 
respondents permit.  Meanwhile,  however,  it  is  pleasant  to  reflect 
that  while  the  growing  list  of  translators  makes  a  complete  col- 
lection of  versions  into  English  a  practical  impossibility  for  any 
publisher,  there  have  not  been  wanting  to  the  ardent  lover  of 
Dies  Irae  volumes  which  have  found  it  possible  to  include  several 
of  the  most  noted  renderings.  Everybody  is  aware  of  the  unique 
volume  in  which  Dr.  Coles,  a  physician  of  Newark,  presented  to 
the  public  no  less  than  thirteen,  versions  from  his  own  pen.  Of 
these,  the  first  six  were  written  in  triplets  of  trochaic  eights,  thus 
imitating  exactly  the  metre  of  the  original  Latin ;  the  succeeding 
five,  in  triplets  of  trochaic  sevens  ;  the  twelfth,  in  triplets  of  iambic 
eights,  and  the  thirteenth,  in  quatrains  of  iambic  eights.  The 
volume  appeared  in  1859  an<^  soon  passed  into  its  fifth  edition. 
In  1868  appeared  The  Seven  Great  Hymns  of  the  Medieval 
Church,  containing  eight  renderings  of  the  hymn  by  various, 
authors.  In  1892,  Mr.  W.  Stryker  published  three  of  his  own 
versions  in  a  little  volume.  All  of  these  volumes  contained  the 
Latin  text  as  found  in  the  Roman  Missal,  while  Dr.  Coles  added 
the  texts  known  as  the  "  Mantuan  marble  "  and  "  Haemmerlin  " 
texts. 

The  table  given  in  the  Dictionary  of  Hymnology  (referred  to 
above)  was  compiled  by  Mr.  Warren  and  Mr.  W.  T.  Brooke. 
While  the  Dictionary  bears  the  date  of  1892,  and  the  table  pub- 
lished by  Mr.  Warren  in  the  Athenceum  bears  the  date  of  1890, 
the  earlier  date  represents  a  later  revision  of  the  table,  as  the  first 
pages  of  the  Dictionary  passed  through  the  press  some  ten  years 
before  the  final  appearance  of  the  completed  work. 

The  finest  gains  of  a  comparative  study  of  English  versions 
of  the  hymn  are  to  be  found,  however,  not  in  a  volume  of  com- 


STUDIES  AND   CONFERENCES.  595 

plete  translations  (which  must  of  necessity  be  few  in  number  at 
the  best),  but  by  comparing  selected  stanzas  from  the  better  ver- 
sions with  a  view  of  perfecting  the  good,  and  by  comparing  these 
with  poorer  selections  with  a  view  of  indicating  what  to  avoid  in 
translation.  In  this  field  of  comparative  hymnology,  Dr.  Schaff 
(in  the  magazine  Hours  at  Home,  in  two  issues,  1 868) ;  Mr.  Ship- 
ley (in  the  article  already  referred  to,  in  the  Dublin  Review  for 
January  and  April,  1883);  and  Mr.  Warren  (in  the  Manuscript 
volume  which  will  appear  serially  in  The  Dolphin)  have  labored 
with  much  success,  each  in  a  different  way.  While  Mr.  Shipley 
selected  fifty  versions  for  analysis,  Mr.  Warren  considered  no  less 
than  ninety-seven,  which  must  be  acknowledged  to  have  been  a 
very  complete  list  for  the  date  at  which  he  made  his  analysis 
(1882.)  While  Mr.  Shipley's  endeavor  was  to  construct  ideal 
versions  by  selection  of  typical  and  excellent  strophes  from  his 
collection  of  renderings,  Mr.  Warren  considered  separately  the 
difficulties  of  strophe  after  strophe  in  the  original  Latin,  illustrated 
these  difficulties  from  the  English  versions,  and  by  approval  of 
some  and  condemnation  of  others,  practically  pointed  the  way  to 
a  single  ideal  version  of  the  great  hymn. 

The  first  installment  of  Mr.  Warren's  essay  appears  in  the 
present  issue  of  The  Dolphin,  and  forms  an  introduction  to  the 
more  detailed  analysis  which  is  to  appear  serially  in  the  succeed- 
ing issues. 

NEW  INDULGENCES. 

Invocation  to  the  Sacred  Heart  of   Jesus  at  the    End  of 

Mass. 

The  Holy  Father  has  granted  a  special  Indulgence  (7  yrs 
and  7  quadr.)  for  the  devout  recitation  of  the  ejaculatory  :  Most 
Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus,  have  mercy  on  us  f  This  invocation  is  to 
be  repeated  thrice  after  the  prayers  recited  at  the  end  of  Low 
Masses  by  the  priest  and  congregation.  The  Indulgence  is 
applicable  to  the  souls  departed.  (S.  C.  I.,  June  17,  1904.  Cf. 
The  Ecclesiastical  Review  for  the  text  of  the  document.) 


Criticisms  and  JMotes, 


IDEALS  OF  SCIENCE  AND  PAITH.  Essays  by  various  authors.  Edited 
by  the  Eev.  J.  E.  Hand  (Editor  of  Good  Citizenship).  New  York  : 
Longmans,  Green  &  Co.;    London :   George  Allen.    1904.    Pp.  333. 

I. 

Although  the  writers  of  these  Essays  on  Science  and  Religion  ex- 
press their  views  from  widely  different  standpoints  and  quite  inde- 
pendently of  each  other  in  thought  and  treatment,  the  symposium  is 
more  than  an  attempt  to  present  merely  a  group  of  articles  upon  a  com- 
mon theme.  It  is  professedly  an  expression  of  the  aspirations  of  leading 
minds  to  combine  scientific  and  religious  activity  toward  the  realiza- 
tion of  man's  highest  ideals.  These  ideals  make  for  enjoyment,  but  en- 
joyment which  is  at  the  same  time  action.  "  Let  the  religious  become 
scientific,  and  the  scientific  religious  ;  then  there  may  be  peace.  But 
the  only  true  peace  is  active  peace,  constructive  peace."  It  is  then 
for  the  purpose  of  formulating  these  aspirations  from  the  scientific  and 
the  religious  points  of  view,  that  men  of  different  schools,  different 
spheres  of  scientific  activity  and  religious  conviction,  are  called  upon 
to  state  some  definite  proposition  in  their  own  field  of  action,  which 
is  to  be  elucidated  and  defended,  with  the  purpose  of  drawing  a  clearer 
distinction  than  has  in  the  opinion  of  the  editor  been  hitherto  done 
between  the  elemental  sense  of  things  from  the  standpoint  of  obser- 
vational science,  and  their  widest  significance  ' '  from  the  highest 
standpoint  of  man's  mental,  moral,  social,  religious  evolution"  (In- 
trod.  xviii).  Thus  the  compiler  hopes  that  the  pretended  antagonism 
between  religion  and  science  will  at  least  in  great  part  disappear 
through  the  recognition  that  the  ideals  common  to  both  are  "not 
only  numerous,  but  are  indeed  the  very  ideals  for  which  the  nobler 
spirits  on  both  sides  care  most."  The  book  before  us  is  therefore 
intended  as  a  sort  of  suggestive  programme  for  a  cooperative  campaign 
on  behalf  of  the  ideals  common  to  both  the  theological  and  scientific 
thought  of  the  day.  The  different  writers  are  selected  from  among 
the  best   representatives  of  various   fields   of  scientific  and  religious 

5  Purgatory,  pp.  118,  119. 


NOTES  OX  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  35 

NOTES  ON  THE  ENGLISH  VERSIONS  OF  THE  "DIES  IRAE." 
Stanzas  I-III. 

By  the  late  C.   F.  S.  Warren,  M.A. 

AS  has  been  already  announced  in  these  pages,  The  Dolphin 
has  obtained  from  Mr.  Orby  Shipley,  the  veteran  Catholic 
hymnologist,  who  has  recently  become  the  literary  heir  of  Mr. 
Warren,  the  copy  of  Mr.  Warren's  MS.  work  on  the  English 
versions  of  the  Dies  Irae.  This  MS.  was  subsequently  enlarged 
by  its  author  to  include  additional  quotations  from  recent  transla- 
tions of  the  hymn,  and  formed  thus  the  basis  of  his  published 
volume.  Instead  of  enlarging  the  MS.  work  as  Mr.  Warren 
thought  proper  to  do  for  the  sake  of  completeness,  it  is  proposed, 
in  this  issue  and  the  following  issues  of  The  Dolphin,  to  condense 
it  into  narrower  limits  by  omitting  much  of  the  illustration  bor- 
rowed from  the  vast  number  of  English  versions  of  the  hymn, 
and  retaining  almost  exclusively  the  valuable  lessons  to  be  derived 
from  a  study  of  those  versions.  Despite  the  great  industry  of 
translators  of  the  hymn,  it  is  evident  that  there  is  still  room  for 
the  conscientious  and  cultivated  labors  of  those  who  would  desire 
to  see  it  rendered  adequately  into  English  verse ;  and  perhaps 
one  of  the  best  means  to  such  an  end  is  the  study  of  the  faults 
into  which  previous  translators  have  fallen.  While  Mr.  Warren 
discusses  this  phase  of  the  Dies  Irae,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Henry,  in  his 
accompanying  articles,  discusses  the  more  general  phases  of  the 
literary  history  of  the  Hymn.  It  is  thus  planned,  within  the 
limits  of  these  papers,  to  furnish  our  readers  with  a  conspectus  of 
the  Dies  Irae  which  shall  satisfy  all  the  lovers  of  "  the  greatest  of 
all  uninspired  hymns."  The  hymn  naturally  divides  itself  into 
two  parts  :  the  "  epic  "  or  descriptive  stanzas  (i-vi)  and  the  "  lyric  " 
(vii-xvii).  The  remaining  six  lines,  beginning  with  Lacrimosa 
dies  ilia,  are  evidently  not  a  part  of  the  original  poem,  comprising 
as  they  do  two  rhymed  and  one  unrhymed  couplet,  while  the 
hymn  is  written  exclusively  in  triplets.  In  the  present  issue  of 
The  Dolphin  the  first  three  stanzas  will  be  treated ;  and  in  the 
following  issues  the  remainder  cf  the  hymn. — Editor. 


36  THE  DOLFHIN. 

The  Hymn. 

i.   Dies  irae,  dies  ilia, 

Solvet  saeclum  in  favilla, 
Teste  David  cum  Sibylla. 

The  Sibyl  quoted  in  the  third  line  is  supposed  by  Mohnike  to  be 
the  Erythraean  in  those  well-known  lines  ("Orac.  Sib.,"  viii,  216  et 
seq. )  forming  the  acrostic  '\yQv%  on  the  name  of  our  Saviour.  Eusebius 
gives  the  Greek  original  in  the  "  Constantini  Oratio,"  chap,  xviii, 
and  St.  Augustine  has  them  partly  in  Latin  in  the  ' '  Civitas  Dei, ' ' 
xviii,  23,  thus  beginning — 

' '  Judicii  signum  tellus  sudore  madescet. ' ' 

That  this  is  the  genuine  third  line  of  the  hymn  there  can  be,  if 
any,  little  doubt  :  but  the  Mantua  Marble,  at  least  as  given  by  Chari- 
sius,  reads  Teste  Petro,  and  the  Parisian  Missal  substituted  without 
any  authority  a  new  line  altogether,  Cruets  expandens  vexilla,  placing 
it  between  the  two  original  ones. 

There  has  been  a  very  general  disposition  among  translators  to 
fight  shy  of  the  Sibyl :  for  though  few  besides  those  mentioned  above 
have  boldly  taken  the  Crucis  line,  many  while  keeping  the  orignal,  like 
Sylvester  and  Drummond,  have,  like  them,  turned  it  generally  so  as  to 
shirk  the  word  Sibyl.  There  are,  in  fact,  fewer  than  fifty  who  have 
used  the  word  itself,  of  whom  five  have  made  it  plural,  one  uses  it 
with  the  indefinite  article,  "  a  Sibyl,"  and  three  versions,  singularly  in 
authorship,  the  Rosarists',  the  Bona  Mors  version,  and  the  Quakers', 
strangely  have  it  in  the  original  form  of  Sibylla,  David  and  Sibylla 
say.  There  seems,  however,  authority  for  thus  using  the  word  in 
English  :  see  Bingham  (Orig.  Eccl.  I,  ii,  7),  where  he  uses  the  phrase, 
"  Sibylla  their  own  prophetess." 

On  this  head  two  curiosities  are  to  be  found  in  American  versions  : 
the  use  of  the  word  priestess  in  one  which  is  marked  in  my  note-book 
as  "  altogether  worthless ; "  and  more  singular  still,  the  replacing  of 
David  by  Virgil  in  another  by  the  Rev.  Charles  Rockwell,  which  I 
have  been  unable  to  procure,  though  this  first  stanza  is  quoted  by  Dr. 
Schaff.      It  is  thus — 

"  Day  of  wrath,  O  direful  day, 
Earth  in  flames  shall  pass  away, 
Virgil  and  the  Sibyl  say," 


XOTES  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  37 

and  the  writer  must  of  course  have  had  in  his  mind  the  famous  lines 
where  Virgil  quotes  the  Cumaean  Sibyl  in  the  fourth  Bucolic — 

' '  Ultima  Cumaei  venit  jam  carminis  aetas, 
Magnus  ab  integro  saeclorum  nascitur  ordo  : 
Jam  redit  et  Virgo,  redeunt  Saturnia  regna, 
Jam  nova  progenius  coelo  demittitur  alto."1 

Still,  he  can  hardly  have  supposed  this  the  passage  alluded  to  by 
Thomas  of  Celano,  and  his  reference  to  Virgil  is  thus  somewhat  un- 
accountable. Virgil  is  used  in  mediaeval  mysteries  as  a  heathen  witness 
to  Christ. 

Of  those  versions  which  turn  the  original  line  generally,  almost  all 
use  such  words  as  seer  or  prophet  j  one  or  two  turn  it  more  generally 
still,  as  Dean  Disney's  Great  theme  of  inspiration1  s  lyre ;  while  there 
are  again  one  or  two  who  so  dilute  the  verse  that  they  cannot  be  said 
to  have  taken  either  reading.  Of  this  class  Worsley  is  a  specimen, 
whose  verse — 

"  Day  of  anger,  day  of  wonder 
When  the  world  shall  roll  asunder, 
Quenched  in  fire  and  smoke  a?id  thunder"  — 

can  only  be  described  by  the  favorite  modern  word  sensational.  But 
all  this  will  be  more  fully  set  out  in  the  tabulation  of  renderings  at  the 
end  of  the  remarks  on  each  verse ;  and  any  repetitions,  sometimes 
perhaps  unavoidable,  must,  and  it  is  hoped  will,  be  pardoned. 

Many  translators  appear  to  have  set  before  themselves  no  very 
distinct  idea  whether  they  shall  be  as  literal  as  possible,  or  more  or 
less  paraphrastic  :  thus  you  shall  see  verses  here  and  there  absolutely 
literal,  and  anon  you  shall  find  others  departing  from  their  text  to  all 
appearance  uncompelled.  Of  this  an  example  may  be  seen  in  this 
very  first  verse.  The  plain  prosaic  translation,  such  as  Lord  Macaulay's 
school  boy  or  any  other  would  give,  is  simply  ' '  the  day  of  wrath,  that 
day,  shall  dissolve  the  world  in  ashes;"  but  the  vast  majority  of  trans- 
lators, instead  of  simply  taking  dies  irae,  dies  ilia,  as  two  nominatives 
in  apposition  governing  the  verb  solvet,  have  made  an  apostrophe  of 

1  "  The  virgin  has  returned  again, 
Returned  the  old  Saturnian  reign, 
And  golden  age  once  more." 

— Lo?igfeliotu> s  Golden  Legend. 


38  THE  DOLPHIN. 

one  or  both  of  them ;  with  in  the  latter  case  this  result,  that  they 
appear  (I  trust  it  is  only  appearance)  to  take  saeclum  as  the  nomina- 
tive to  solvet,  and  solvet  as  a  neuter  verb,  which  it  never  is ; 2  and 
thus  they  alter  the  idea  in  a  way  which,  if  justifiable  in  a  paraphrase, 
is  hardly  so  in  a  literal  version.  Nor  is  it  for  the  better  ;  for  though 
it  is  a  bold  thing,  and  demands  an  apology,  to  differ  from  so  many,  I 
can  hardly  think  that  the  majesty  of  the  poem  is  increased  by  an 
apostrophe.  Thomas  of  Celano  thought  none  to  be  necessary  ;  why 
should  we  think  otherwise  ?  In  the  third  verse  of  the  Mantuan  text 
there  is  perhaps  one  in  the  weak  inversion,  Dies  ilia,  dies  irae  ;  but 
even  that  text  is  not  improved  by  it. 

Another  point  which  demands  consideration,  and  which  partly 
depends  upon  the  former,  is  the  liberty  which  many  writers  have  taken 
of  changing  the  tense  from  the  future  to  the  present  throughout.  No 
doubt  the  present  tense  may  be  managed  as  a  historical  present,  so  as 
clearly  to  shew  forth  the  future  meaning  which  is  to  be  given  to  it  by 
the  reader ;  and  Dr.  Dobbin  has  skilfully  managed  this  by  beginning 
with  the  following  emphatic  verse — 

' '  Cometh  the  day,  that  day  of  ire, 
When  melts  the  universe  in  fire, 
By  Sibyl  sung  and  David's  lyre." 

The  prominence  here  given  to  the  word  cometh  marks  the  sense  which 
the  present  tense  is  to  have  throughout ;  but  without  some  such  note 
of  meaning  as  this  it  seems  better  to  preserve  the  future.  Thus  the 
familiar  Dr.  Irons,  in  his  version  in  H.A.M.,  hardly  brings  out  enough 
in  his  first  verse  the  notion  of  the  coming  of  the  day  of  wrath  ;  apostro- 
phizing a  day  is  not  to  say  the  day  will  come ;  if  he  had  used  the 
future  tense  it  would  have  been  different ;  but  when  he  goes  on  O  what 
fear  man's  bosom  rendeth  all  seems  vague,  the  occasion  of  the  fear 
seems  insufficiently  defined  even  by  the  succeeding  line,  and  the  use 
of  the  present  tense  hardly  gives  so  much  force  and  vigor  as  the  writer 
probably  intended  it  should  give. 

But  I  must  not  find  fault  too  liberally ;  and  a  really  good  trans- 
lator will  hardly  need  such  warnings  as  he  might  get  from  ungram- 
matical  first  verses  like  Dr.  Coles'  — 

2  The  American,  Dr.  Stryker,  has  actually  made  this  blunder  in  a  literal  prose 
version  which  he  has  printed,  but  which  I  have  thought  it  needless  to  reproduce. 


NOTES  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  39 

' '  Day  of  wrath,  that  day  of  burning, 
Seer  and  Sibyl  speak  concerning, 
All  the  world  to  ashes  turning" — 3 

or  from  far-fetched  participles  entailed  on  a  man  by  the  exigencies  of 
double  rhyme. 

No ;  it  will  be  a  pleasanter  task  to  call  attention  to  a  few  really 
good  first  verses.  And  as  it  has  hitherto  been  necessary  to  speak  rather 
badly  of  the  American  versions,  one  of  those  shall  be  put  first,  which 
is  as  good  as  any  that  I  have  seen. 

* '  The  day  of  anger,  ah  that  day, 
Shall  melt  the  world  in  flames  away, 
This  David  and  the  Sibyl  say." 

In  this,  by  Mr.  Henry  MacDonald,  ah  that  day  must  be  taken  as  a 
parenthesis,  and  then  the  simplicity  of  the  wording  and  the  emphasis 
of  the  last  line  are  both  very  good  points  in  its  favor. 

Of  those  which  are  now  commonly  inserted  in  hymnals,  the  best 
is  perhaps  Isaac  Williams'  — 

"Day  of  wrath,  that  awful  day 
Shall  the  bannered  cross  display, 
Earth  in  ashes  melt  away." 

These  following  vary  somewhat  from  the  ordinary  style — 

"  Nigher  still  and  still  more  nigh 
Draws  the  day  of  prophecy, 
Doomed  to  melt  the  earth  and  sky. ' ' 

—  Caswall. 
' '  Dawns  the  day,  the  day  of  dread, 
Fast  the  fires  of  ruin  spread, 
David  with  the  Sibyl  said. ' ' 

— ' '  Messenger  of  the  Sacred  Heart, "  1875. 

Before  passing  on  it  may  be  well  to  point  out  a  singular  mistake  made 
by  another  Roman  Catholic  translation,  which  is  believed  to  be  an 
early  one  of  Father  Aylward,  in  the  "  Crown  of  Jesus,"  1862 — 

3  The  writer  probably  intended  a  relative  to  be  supplied,  "  Day  of  wrath 
concerning  which  Seer  and  Sibyl  speak;"  but  it  is  hardly  a  fit  case  for  such  an 
omission. 


40  THE  DOLPHIN. 

11  Day  of  wrath,  that  day  of  woe, 
Doomed  to  melt  all  things  below, 
Psalms  and  Sibyl -songs  foreshew." 

The  translator's  difficulty  for  a  rhyme  has  caused  him  to  restrict  the 
day  of  judgment  to  the  earth — all  things  below — forgetting  that  "  the 
heavens  being  on  fire  shall  be  dissolved."      (Dorian  N.T. ) 

In  the  tabulated  views  *  of  which  I  am  now  about  to  give  the  first, 
it  will  be  seen,  first,  that  they  relate  chiefly  to  words,  phrases,  and 
turns  of  expression,  and  therefore  if  any  line  does  not  admit  of  inser- 
tion in  such  a  table  it  is  omitted;  and,  secondly,  I  have  to  premise 
that  slight  differences  in  the  order  of  the  same  words  are  occasionally 
disregarded ;  thus,  for  instance,  David  and  the  Sibyl  and  The  Sibyl 
and  David  would  be  placed  under  the  same  head.  The  versions  also 
not  in  triplets  are  sometimes,  not  admitting  of  insertion,  left  out ;  and 
in  short,  though  the  tabulations  may  be  considered  correct  as  far  as 
they  go,  they  are  not  to  be  taken  as  altogether  exhaustive. 

Line  i. — Wrath,  40;  anger,  7  ;  ire,  6  ;  vengeance,  4;  judgment,  2  ; 
fury,  horror,  doom,  each  1. 

Dread,  dreaded,  dreadful,  12  ;   awful,  6. 

Line  ii. — World,  25;  heaven,  2;  earth,  19;  heaven  and  earth,  10; 
earth  and  sky,  2  ;  earth  and  time,  1  ;  time,  2  ;  ages,  2  ; 
universe,  2. 

Ashes,  3 1  ;  dust,  3  ;  dust  and  ashes,  2  ;  fire,  1 2  ;  flame, 
10 ;  smoke,  1  ;  embers,  2  ;  crumbling  fire,  1  ;  fire  and 
smoke  and  thunder,  1. 

Melt,  17;  consume,  4;  dissolve,  4;  lay  (in  ashes),  11; 
turn  (to  ashes),  3  ;   burn,  3  ;   expire,  2  ;   fade,  flee. 

Line  Hi. — Reading  Sibylla.  David  and  Sibyl,  27;  Seer  and  Sibyl, 
9 ;  Seer  and  Psalmist,  6  ;  Sibyl  and  Psalmist,  3  ;  Oracle 
and  Psalmist,  1  ;  Sibyl  and  Prophet,  5  ;  Psalm  and  Sibyl, 
6;  David  and  Seer,  4;  Saint  and  Seer,  3  ;  David  (alone), 
1  ;  Seer  (alone),  2  ;  Seer  and  heathen,  1  ;  all  Seers,  1  ; 
Prophet  and  Priestess,  1  ;   Zion,  1  ;   Scripture,  2. 

Reading    Crucis.      Bannered    cross,    3  ;   banner  of    the 
cross,  1;   cross  (simply),  3;   sign,  1. 

4  Many  of  the  latter  versions  are  not  included. 


XOTES  OX  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  4 1 

2.  Quantus  tremor  est  futurus, 
Quando  Judex  est  venturus, 
Cuncta  stricte  discussurus. 

As  indeed  all  through  the  Hymn,  a  simple  rendering  is  here  the 
best;  "weird  horrors,"  for  instance,  should  be  avoided,  which  a 
Roman  Catholic  writer  (Mr.  Charles  Kent,  Barrister-at-Law)  in  the 
Month  of  November,  1874,  has  inserted.  The  additional  idea  of 
some  is  not  only  useless,  but  wrong,  as  this  line  of  Mr.  Samuel 
Watson  {Belforo?  s  Magazine,  Toronto,  May,  1878) — 

"When  the  Judge  shall  come  in  glooming /" 

the  writer  probably  remembered  that  our  Lord  will  come  in  a  cloud, 
which  is  no  doubt  true,  but  the  cloud  will  be  a  bright  one. 

The  verse  is  not  one  of  the  most  difficult  to  turn,  but  yet  most 
translators  seem  to  have  diluted  it  more  or  less,  and  some  unfortunately 
by  sinking  the  last  line,  which  is  just  what  should  be  prominent ;  so 
Archdeacon  Rowan  of  Ardfert,  in  the  Irish  Ecclesiastical  Journal 
for  June,  1849 — 

' '  Lo,  that  solemn  Advent  nearing, 
How  the  nations  mazed  and  fearing 
Wait  their  Judge's  reappearing." 

The  point  in  this  last  line  is  of  course  in  the  word  discussurus,  not  so 
much  to  judge  as  to  search  and  thoroughly,  stricte,  lay  bare.  To 
express  the  idea,  the  word  assize  is  not  a  bad  one ;  I  do  not,  however, 
find  that  many  translators  have  used  it  here,  though  there  are  exam- 
ples in  James  Dymock,  1687,  and  in  the  Messenger  of  the  Sacred 
Heart,  1875  ;  anc*  others  have  used  the  word  in  the  fourth  verse  and 
at  the  end  of  the  hymn.     Mr.  Copeland's  version — 

1 '  What  a  trembling  far  and  near, 
When  the  Judge  shall  straight  appear 
Winnowing  all  with  fan  severe  "  — 

is  the  only  instance  of  an  allusion  to  the  text,  '  *  Whose  fan  is  in  His 
hand,"  though  it  is  not  very  uncommon  to  introduce  a  kindred  idea 
by  the  use  of  the  word  "sift."  Another  metaphor,  as  might  be 
expected,  is  sometimes  suggested  by  the  use  of  the  word   ' '  weigh. ' ' 


42  THE  DOLPHIN. 

Line  i. — Fear,    24;   trembling,    17;    terror,    14;    tremor,  4;   dread, 
6  ;   horror,  2. 

Of  several  other  words,  such   as  fright,  agony,  distress, 
there  are  solitary  instances. 
Line  ii. — Judge,  all  but  universal ;   avenger,  1;    "  judgment  sign, "  1. 
Christ,  Christ  Jesus,  Redeemer,  each  once  used. 
Epithets.      Great,    3  ;    severe,   3 ;    dread,    dreadful,    2  ;' 
impartial,  2  ;  sore,  strict,  high,  righteous,  tremendous,  om- 
niscient, potent. 
Line  Hi. — So  very  variously  dealt  with  as  to  hinder  classing. 

3.   Tuba  mirum  spargens  sonum, 
Per  sepulcra  regionum, 
Coget  omnes  ante  thronum. ' ' 

The  trumpet  gives  a  wondrous  sound,  but  there  is  no  need  to  say 
that  it  "blares,"  as  Dr.  Macgill,  1876,  and  two  or  three  writers  of 
America  do. 

' '  Blares  aloud  that  trump  of  thunder, 
Crashing,  waking  death  in  wonder, 
Citing  all  the  white  throne  under. ' ' 

— Dr.  Macgill. 

One  is  reminded  of  Lord  Tennyson's  line,  "Warble,  O  bugle,  and, 
trumpet  blare" — the  word  may  do  very  well  for  military  music  to 
welcome  the  Princess  of  Wales,  but  it  cannot  suit  the  trumpet  of  the 
last  day  of  judgment.  Of  the  Americans  who  have  used  it,  one  is 
Dr.  Coles,  who  in  another  version  calls  the  sound  a  "reverberating 
roar;"  this  is  even  worse.  The  word  itself,  trumpet  or  trump,  is  used 
almost  without  exception;  W.  J.  Blew  turns  it  into  an  "unearthly 
clarion  "  5  in  a  verse  which  is  an  example  of  what  I  have  called  the 
sensational  style  ;  and  two  or  three  others  simply  speak  of  "  the  blast. ' ' 

"  Hear  the  unearthly  clarion  knelling 
Through  dim  vault  and  charnel  dwelling, 
All  before  the  throne  compelling." 

— Blew. 

If  this  characteristic  of  the  sound  is  to  be  emphasized,  a  simple  way  of 
doing  it  is   "with    loudest    crash"   (The   Lamp,    1856),   and  if  the 

5  The  word  clarion  had  been  used  before  in  the  "  Bona  Mors"  version. 


NOTES  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAEr  43 

blast  is  to  be  attributed  to  any  agent,  it  should  be  to  the  Almighty 
Himself — "  the  voice  of  the  archangel  and  the  trump  (tuba)  of  God  " 
— it  would  seem  that  to  give  the  trump  to  the  archangel,  as  is  some- 
times done,  is  a  sort  of  confusion  arising  from  the  seven  apocalyptic 
trumpets.  Still,  Dean  Stanley  and  other  writers  have  made  the  trump 
an  angelic  one  ;  and  it  is  indeed  very  few  who  have  made  it  divine. 
Among  these  few  are  the  Rosarists,  and,  later,  Dr.  Coles,  in  two  of  his 
versions  ;  in  his  freer  version  in  couplets  he  has  taken  the  fuller  idea 
of  St.  Paul  as  above — the  lines,  except  the  "dreadful  shrieks,"  are 
good — 

' '  What  dreadful  shrieks  the  air  shall  rend 

When  all  shall  see  the  Judge  descend, 

And  hear  the  Archangel's  echoing  shout 

From  heavenly  spaces  ringing  out. 

The  trump  of  God  with  quickening  breath 

Shall  pierce  the  silent  realms  of  death 

And  sound  the  summons  in  each  ear, 

Arise,  thy  Maker  calls  :   appear. ' ' 

While  another  American,  calling  himself  "Somniator,"  though  also 
introducing  both  the  Almighty  and  the  angel,  has  curiously  enough 
exactly  reversed  St.  Paul's  expression,  and  written  of  The  archangel' s 
trump,  the  voice  of  God. 

The  other  points  to  be  noticed  are  the  force  of  regiones  and  coget. 
The  regions  being,  of  course,  in  strictness  the  four  quarters  of  the 
earth — the  four  corners,  as  Dr.  Coles  in  one  version  has  it — this  idea, 
or  a  kindred  one,  should  be  preserved  (but  let  no  one  go  after  Mr. 
Justice  O'Hagan  and  rhyme  regions  with  obedience),  whereas  such 
generalities  as  tombs  of  earth,  death's  dominions,  caves  sepulchral, 
earth' s  myriad  graveyards,  dark  and  dusty  dwellings  (sic),  lose  sight 
of  it ;  also  to  translate  the  regiones  into  kingdoms,  or  as  Mr.  Copeland 
has  it,  empires,  is  an  error — the  word  has  not,  that  I  can  find,  this  sense 
at  all  ;  a  good  general  rendering  is  perhaps  "  death's  valley  "  (Miss 
Pearson,  an  American  lady).  Coget,  too,  must  not  be  watered  down 
into  a  mere  statement  of  the  fact  that  the  dead  will  come — the  blast 
brings  them.  But  to  find  a  word  is  difficult ;  summon  and  bid  are 
perhaps  hardly  strong  enough,  for  a  summons  and  a  bidding  may  be 
disregarded.  So  indeed  may  a  citation,  but  we  know  at  once  that 
if  it  be,  further  steps  are  often  taken  ;  and  though  this  is  true  also, 
and  indeed  more  universally  true,  of  a   u  summons"   in  the  technical 


44  THE  DOLPHIN. 

sense,  yet  this  sense  is  not  so  evident  in  the  word  su?nmon  as  in  cite ; 
cite  therefore  has  more  of  the  required  force,  and  is  preferable.  Of 
other  words  which  have  not  this  technical  sense  about  them,  force  and 
hale,  though  quite  strong  enough,  seem  not  sufficiently  dignified ; 
compel  is  probably  as  good  a  word  as  can  be  found ;  bring  up  is  less 
common,  and  thus  perhaps  better  still.  It  should  be  said  that  unless 
otherwise  stated  all  words  suggested  are  actually  found  in  at  least  one 
version.  A  fine,  solemn  line  is  the  Rev.  A.  T.  Russel's  (1851),  To 
the  tomb  the  trumpet  calleth. 

On  the  whole,  then,  some  of  the  best  and  simplest  renderings  of 
this  third  verse  appear  to  be  these — 

"The    trumpet's  wonder-working  "Hark   the    trumpet's    wondrous 

tone  tone 

Through  graves  in  every  region  Through    the   tombs   of    every 

blown  zone, 

Shall    hale    us    all    before    the  Summons  all  before  the  throne. ' ' 

throne. ' '  —  Dr.  Philip  Schaff,  1869. 
— H.  F.  Mac donald (America) . 

For   its  singular  metre  and  word   in  the  last  line,  this,  of  which  a 
specimen  has  not  yet  been  given,  must  be  quoted— 

The  dismal  trumpet  with  sad  tone 

Sounds  to  the  grave  of  every  one 

To  rise  and  rendez-vous  before  His  Throne. ' ' 

— Anon. ,  1 694  ("  Thomas  a  Kempis  " ) . 

Line  i. — Trumpet,  56  ;  trumpets  in  plural,  1  ;  trump,  32  ;  clarion, 
3;  "trump  of  clarion,"  1;  blast  (alone),  2;  other  addi- 
tional words :  tone,  18;  sound,  13;  voice,  3  ;  blare  (noun), 
3  ;  blare  (verb),  1. 

Epithets.      Wondrous,  18;  awful,  6;  thrilling,  4;  dread- 
ful,  3  ;  startling,    2  ;   thundering,    fearful,    unearthly,  shrill, 
hoarse,  terrific,  astounding,  mysterious. 
Line  ii. — Cannot  well  be  classed. 

Line  Hi. — Verbs  representing  coget :  Summon,  15;  compel,  11;  call, 
10  ;  bid,  5  ;  gather,  6  ;  cite,  3  ;  bring,  3  ;  force,  4  ;  drive, 
3  ;   muster,  2  ;  hale,  command,  constrain. 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  45 

COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE." 

Stanzas  I— III. 

I.  1. 

Dies  irae,  dies  ilia  The  day  of  wrath,  that  day 

Solvet  saeclum  in  favilla,  Shall  reduce  the  world  to  glowing  ashes, 

Teste  David  cum  Sybilla.  So  saith  David,  with  the  Sibyl. 

All  lovers  of  the  great  hymn  will  probably  find  Mr.  Warren's 
"  Notes  "  quite  as  interesting  as  they  undoubtedly  are  valuable. 
Assuredly,  the  task  of  the  translator  is  herculean.  His  many 
failures  are  so  many  confessions :  "  I  am  haunted,"  we  can  almost 
hear  him  say,  "  by  the  subtle  melody  of  the  Latin  original,  by  the 
triple  verse  of  the  strophe,  by  the  cadenced  rhyme  falling  upon 
my  ear  with  the  rhythmic  insistence  of  sledge  upon  anvil : — 

'  Could  I  but  speak  it  and  show  it, 
This  pleasure  more  sharp  than  pain 
That  baffles  and  lures  me  so, 
The  world  should  once  more  have  a  poet 
Such  as  it  had 
In  the  ages  glad 
Long  ago'  — 

that  is,  such  as  it  had  in  the  humble  Franciscan  friar  in  that  mar- 
vellous age  known  to  the  ecclesiast,  the  schoolman,  the  artist,  the 
poet,  as  the  Thirteenth  Century  of  the  Christian  Era.  But  Eng- 
lish is  a  rugged  speech,  and  Latin  a  mellifluous  tongue ;  trochaic 
verse  singularly  accords  with  the  genius  of  a  syntax  not  hinged 
upon  the  unavoidable  particles  of  my  own  language,  but  moving 
upon  the  oiled  courses  of  inflectional  speech  ;  continuous  trochaic 
rhyming,  so  natural  to  a  vocabulary  that  knows  no  accent  on  the 
final  syllable  of  a  word,  is  a  practical  impossibility — so  declareth 
Mr.  Warren — in  English.  So  much  for  the  mere  external  form 
that  thus  '  baffles  and  lures  me  so.'  But  the  crystalline  conden- 
sation of  the  idea  possible  to  the  Latin,  the  amber-like  solidity 
yet  lucidity  of  the  phrase — how  shall  I  imitate  that  ?  Brevis  esse 
labor oy  obscurus  fio,  in  my  forced  acceptance  of  the  intractable 
trochaic  opening  of  each  verse.  English  expression  lends  itself 
so  naturally  to  iambic  metre  that  nearly  all  of  our  verse  is  iambic ; 


46  THE  DOLPHIN. 

but  how  dare   I   sacrifice   to  such  a  necessity  the  incomparable 
melody  of  the  Latin  masterpiece  ?  " 

The  particles  and  accents  of  English  do  indeed  make  iambic 
the  most  facile  of  all  metres  and  trochaic  (and  for  a  similar  reason, 
dactylic)  the  most  difficult.  But  the  difficulty  of  the  double 
rhyming  essential  to  pure  trochaic  lines  is  well-nigh  insurmount- 
able. Mr.  Warren  has  demonstrated  this  difficulty  a  posteriori 
in  such  an  admirable  fashion  as  to  leave  nothing  to  be  desired. 
But  it  is  not  de  trop  to  quote  in  this  connection  General  Dix's 
rather  humorous  allusion  to  the  difficulty,  in  his  comment  on  his 
own  translation  of  the  first  stanza : 

(i863.) 

Day.  of  vengeance  without  morrow, 
Earth  shall  end  in  flame  and  sorrow, 
As  from  saint  and  seer  we  borrow. 

"  It  is  this  stanza,"  wrote  the  General,  "  which  has  always  proved 
most  troublesome  to  translators,  and  it  is  the  one  with  which  I 
was  dissatisfied  more  than  with  any  other  in  my  translation  when 
I  allowed  it  to  go  to  the  press.  My  dissatisfaction  was  greatly 
increased  a  few  years  later  on  finding  in  one  of  Thackeray's 
novels — I  do  not  at  this  moment  recollect  which — a  passage 
somewhat  like  this :  '  When  a  man  is  cudgeling  his  brains  to  find 
any  other  rhymes  for  "  sorrow  "  than  "  borrow  "  and  u  morrow," 
he  is  nearer  the  end  of  his  woes  than  he  imagines' :  I  felt  instinct- 
ively that  any  one  familiar  with  this  passage  would,  on  reading 
my  translation,  be  conscious,  at  the  very  commencement,  of  a 
sense  of  the  ludicrous  altogether  incompatible  with  the  solemnity 
of  the  subject.  I  therefore  resolved,  at  my  earliest  leisure,  to 
attempt  the  production  of  an  improved  version  of  the  first  stanza  ; 
and  in  doing  so  I  remodelled  several  others,  to  make  them  con- 
form more  nearly  to  the  original  .  .  .  How  successful  I  have 
been  in  the  change  I  have  made  in  the  first  two  lines  of  the  stanza 
I  am  at  a  loss  to  determine.  I  can  only  say  that,  after  an  elabo- 
rate effort,  it  was  the  best  I  could  do."  !  This  is  General  Dix's 
revision  of  the  stanza  : 

1  Memoirs  of  John  A.   Dix,  II,  pp.    233-4. 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  47 

(I875-) 
Day  of  vengeance,  lo  !  that  morning 
On  the  earth  in  ashes  dawning, 
David  with  the  Sybil  warning. 

Quite  apart  from  the  question  of  the  bad  rhyming  of  "  dawning" 
with  "  warning  "  and  "  morning,"  the  revision  has  dropped  out  of 
sight  the  important  future  tense  of  the  Latin — a  tense  faithfully- 
reproduced  in  the  first  draft ;  and  in  addition  to  this  distinct  loss, 
there  is  in  the  whole  stanza  an  uncomfortable  suggestion  of  the 
"  ablative  absolute  "  construction  which  is  found  only  in  the  first 
line  of  the  first  draft.  The  old  wine  was  the  best,  and  the  General 
has  but  added  one  more  to  the  many  illustrations  of  the  thesis 
maintained  by  Dr.  Coles 2  (who  translated  the  hymn  eighteen 
times),  that  no  single  version  can  reflect  the  totality  of  the  ori- 
ginal : 

"To  preserve,  in  connection  with  the  utmost  fidelity  and  strict- 
ness of  rendering,  all  the  rhythmic  merits  of  the  Latin  original, — to 
attain  to  a  vital  likeness  as  well  as  to  an  exact  literalness,  at  the  same 
time  that  nothing  is  sacrificed  of  its  musical  sonorousness  and  billowy 
grandeur,  easy  and  graceful  in  its  swing  as  the  ocean  on  its  bed, — to 
make  the  verbal  copy,  otherwise  cold  and  dead,  glow  with  the  fire  of 
lyric  passion, — to  reflect,  and  that  too  by  means  of  a  single  version, 
the  manifold  aspects  of  the  many-sided  original,  exhausting  at  once 
its  wonderful  fulness  and  pregnancy, — to  cause  the  white  light  of  the 
primitive  so  to  pass  through  the  medium  of  another  language  as  that 
it  shall  undergo  no  refraction  whatever,  — would  be  desirable,  cer- 
tainly, were  it  practicable  \  but  so  much  as  this  it  were  unreasonable 
to  expect  in  a  single  version." 

Dr.  Coles  thus  apologizes  for  his  tour  de  force  in  making  so 
many  versions.  It  is  doubtful,  to  say  the  least,  whether  the  suc- 
cess of  his  effort  can  be  considered  as  having  justified  it ;  and  his 
apologia  is  quoted  here  merely  as  a  rhetorical  summary  of  the 
difficulties  crowding  hard  upon  the  translator.  The  untrans- 
latableness  of  the  hymn  is  also  testified  to  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Duf- 
field,  who  confessed  that  he  thought  his  sixth  version  had  not 
carried  him  "  one  inch  "  beyond  his  first. 

2  Dies  Irae  in  Thirteen  Original  Versions,  5th  ed.,  p.  33. 


48 


THE  DOLPHIN. 


I. — Dies  irae,  dies  illa. 
Doubtless  one  of  the  elements  of  difficulty  found  in  trans- 
lating the  first  stanza  arises  from  the  startling  suddenness  with 
which  the  poet  ushers  in  his  theme  :  Dies  irae,  dies  illa.  With- 
out premonitory  hint  of  any  kind,  "  as  in  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye  "  (as  St.  Paul  strikingly  puts  it),  we  are  brought  face  to  face 
with  the  one  thing  we  would  have  farthest  removed  from  our 
thoughts.    The  awful  pageant  of  convulsed  nature  3 — the  roarings 


3  The  "signs  and  wonders"  heralding  the  Day  of  Judgment  are  very  strikingly 
set  forth  in  W.  G.  Palgrave's  poem  (written  in  1844,  when  the  full  tide  of  British 
versions  of  the  Dies  Irae  had  set  in  but  a  few  years)  entitled  "  The  Eve  of  the  Day 
of  Judgment."  Our  readers  will  pardon  us  if  we  quote  it  entire  in  this  connection, 
partly  as  a  vivid  description  of  the  preludings  of  the  Last  Trumpet,  partly  as  an  intro- 
duction to  the  great  hymn  itself,  and  partly  as  an  illustration  of  a  curious  stanzaic  and 
rhymic  scheme — the  last  word  of  each  stanza  rhyming  with  the  four  lines  of  the  suc- 
ceeding stanza,  while  the  last  word  of  the  last  stanza  rhymes  with  the  four  lines  of 
the  first,  a  complete  cycle  of  rhyme  being  thus  completed : 


When  he  comes  Who  died  on  Tree 
Signs  and  wonders  there  shall  be 
In  the  earth  and  air  and  sea, 
Horror  and  perplexity 

On  the  quick  and  dead. 

Darkness  o'er  the  earth  shall  spread, 
Earth  shall  reel  beneath  the  tread, 
Strange  amazement  overhead, 
Round  them  shall  be  fear  and  dread 
As  a  troubled  dream. 

All  shall  strange  and  altered  seem, 
As  from  some  unwonted  gleam, 
Plain  or  mountain,  marsh  or  stream, 
Other  shew  than  we  did  deem 
Mid  the  mist  and  rain. 

Forms  the  eye  may  not  retain 
Shall  be  seen  and  lost  again, 
Sounds  be  heard  of  broken  strain, 
Frequent  on  the  shaded  plain 
Or  the  lonely  way. 

Near  when  draws  that  wrathful  day 
Nature's  bonds  shall  all  decay; 
Stone  from  stone  shall  drop  away, 
Wood  from  wood  and  clay  from  clay, 
Nought  be  constant  there. 


Ships  that  mid  the  waters  fare 
Sink  tho'  smooth  the  waves  and  fair, 
Birds  shall  fall  through  yielding  air, 
Earth  the  tread  refuse  to  bear 
And  asunder  start. 

Wearied  all,  amazed,  apart 
Shall  remain  with  speechless  smart, 
Failing  eyes  and  sickening  heart, 
Longing  till  the  shadows  part 
And  the  darkness  hie. 

They  for  death  aloud  shall  cry, 
But  before  them  death  shall  fly ; 
Ever  present  to  their  eye, 
Yet  their  prayer  shall  he  deny, 
Mocking  at  their  moan. 

Rock  and  water,  wood  and  stone, 
With  a  lamentable  groan, 
Him  Who  sits  upon  the  Throne 
Call  to  haste  and  take  His  own, 
And  no  more  delay. 

Yet  ere  dawn  the  eternal  day 
Such  long  night  must  wear  away  ; 
If  before  it  stick  dismay, 
What  shall  be  that  very  Day, 

What  that  Judgment  be  ? 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  49 

of  the  sea,  the  stars  falling  from  heaven,  the  darkened  sun  and 
moon,  and  the  moving  of  the  powers  of  heaven — prophesied  by 
our  Saviour,  was  no  doubt  in  the  poet's  mind  when  he  wrote ;  but 
none  of  these  terrors  does  he  picture  for  us — nor  even  the  fore- 
heralding  of  these  in  the  moral  convulsions  in  the  nations  of  the 
earth — as  an  introduction  to  the  Day  itself.  With  a  frightful  ab- 
ruptness the  theme  is  announced  ;  but  the  Scriptural  text — a 
classical  one  in  Latin — on  which  the  hymn  is  built  made  that 
abruptness  not  inartistic  in  the  Latin,  while  the  absence  of  a 
similar  classical  text  in  English  allows  the  translator  to  stumble 
blindly  for  an  opening  line  that  shall,  like  the  original,  seem  like 
a  blast  blown  from  the  very  "  trump  of  God  "  itself.  The  Latin 
text,  namely,  was  that  of  the  prophet  Sophonias  (I,  15  :  16) : 

Dies  irae,  dies  ilia 

dies  tribulationis  et  angustiae, 

dies  calamitatis  et  miseriae, 

dies  tenebrarum  et  caliginis, 

dies  nebulae  et  turbinis, 

dies  tubae  et  clangoris     .... 

Such  is  doubtless  the  inspirational  text  of  the  hymn,  furnishing 
it  at  once  with  the  motif  and  the  first  utterance  thereof.  The 
"  tuba  "  is  heard  throughout ;  but  what  similar  classic  and  conven- 
tional text  do  we  find  in  English  ?  "  That  day  is  a  day  of  wrath" 
is  the  rendering  of  the  text  into  English.  Its  Biblical  use  would 
fit  it  for  the  office  of  "  first  line  "  in  an  English  version  of  the 
hymn,  and  no  other  rendering  could  be  anything  else  than  a  weak 
dilution  of  its  simple,  direct  strength.  It  must  be  the  final  Eng- 
lish rendering  ;  but,  unfortunately,  that  rendering  is  not  rhythmical, 
and  no  amount  of  tortuous  ingenuity  can  make  it  rhythmical. 

It  would  be  a  curious  and  interesting  experiment  to  give  a  paraphrase  of  the 
Dies  Irae  in  a  similar  series  of  rhyme-coupled  stanzas.  The  metre — trochaic  7s — is 
a  favorite  one  with  translators  of  the  hymn.  The  marvellous  triple  trochaic  rhyming 
of  the  original  would  indeed  be  lost ;  but  its  absence  could  in  a  measure  be  atoned 
for  by  a  certain  soberness  and  solemnity  found  in  the  repetition  of  the  fourfold  rhyme  : 

O  that  day,  the  day  of  ire,  Ah,  how  many  a  dying  throe 

When  in  vast  consuming  fire  Heaven  and  earth  shall  undergo 

Earth  and  Time  at  length  expire,  When  the  Judge  of  weal  and  woe 

David's  psalm  and  Sibyl's  lyre  Comes  in  flaming  after-glow 

Did  of  old  foreshow.  All  their  deeds  to  try  !  etc. 


50  THE  DOLPHIN. 

"  Stat  difficultas  "  for  the  translator ;  and  the  difficulty  stares  him 
in  the  face  at  the  very  commencement  of  his  task — is  indeed  the 
very  threshold  of  the  mansion  he  would  enter.  If  at  least  an 
approximate  conformity  to  the  original  rhythm  were  not  so 
desirable  as  it  is  in  such  a  hymn,  it  would  indeed  be  possible  to 
translate  the  opening  line  with  absolute  literalness  : 

The  Day  of  wrath — that  day 
Shall  melt  the  earth  away, 
As  Saint  and  Sybil  say. 

An  interesting  illustration  of  the  startling  suddenness  of  the 
opening  line  is  furnished  by  Sir  Walter  Scott's  fragment  of  the 
hymn  introduced  into  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel.  Even  with 
an  introductory  warning,  how  suddenly  the  grand  line  bursts  upon 
the  ear ! 

"  The  mass  was  sung,  and  prayers  were  said, 
And  solemn  requiem  for  the  dead  ; 
And  bells  tolled  out  their  mighty  peal, 
For  the  departed  spirit's  weal ; 
And  ever  in  the  office  close 
The  hymn  of  intercession  rose ; 
And  far  the  echoing  aisles  prolong 
The  awful  burden  of  the  song  : 

Dies  irae,  dies  ilia  ! 

Solvet  saeclum  in  favilla  ; 
While  the  pealing  organ  rung  ; 
Were  it  meet  with  sacred  strain 
To  close  my  lay  so  light  and  vain, 
Thus  the  holy  Fathers  sung  : 

That  day  of  wrath,  that  dreadful  day  ! 
When  heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away, 
What  power  shall  be  the  sinner's  stay  ? 
How  shall  he  meet  that  dreadful  day  ? 

When  shrivelling  like  a  parched  scroll 
The  flaming  heavens  together  roll  ; 
When  louder  yet  and  yet  more  dread 
Swells  the  high  trump  that  wakes  the  dead  ! 

Oh  !  on  that  day,  that  wrathful  day 
When  man  to  judgment  wakes  from  clay, 
Be  thou  the  trembling  sinner's  stay, 
Though  heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away  !" 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE. 


51 


The  author  of  the  Mantuan  Marble  text  apparently  shared  the 
same  feeling  that  the  abruptness  of  the  first  line  of  the  hymn 
demanded  some  kind  of  introduction ;  and  accordingly  he  begins 
with  a  quiet  warning  : 


Cogita,  anima  fidelis, 
Ad  quid  respondere  velis 
Christo  venturo  de  coelis,- 


Think,  O  Christian  soul,  and  sigh- 
Unto  what  thou  must  reply, 
When  Christ  cometh  from  the  sky 
— Version  of  Dr.  Irons  (1848)- 


and  follows  on  with  the  three  stanzas  already  printed  in  the  No- 
vember issue  of  The  Dolphin.  Doubtless  for  the  same  reason  a 
certain  Stephanus  Proisthinius,  who  attributed  the  authorship  ot 
the  hymn  to  St.  Bernard,  includes  for  the  hymn  the  following 
prologue : 


Cum  recordor  moriturus 
Quid  post  mortem  sim  futurus 
Terror  terret  me  venturus 
Quem  expecto  non  securus. 
Terret  dies  me  terroris, 
Dies  irae  ac  furoris, 
Dies  luctus  ac  moeroris, 
Dies  ultrix  peccatoris, 
Dies  Irae,  dies  ilia,  etc. 


When  I,  doomed  to  certain  death, 
Think  what  follows  my  last  breath, 
Grips  me  now  that  coming  terror 
Shadowed  forth  as  from  a  mirror  : 
Day  of  tumult  and  of  clangor, 
Day  of  vengeance  and  of  anger, 
Day  of  grief  and  tears  and  wailing, 
Day  of  vengeance  all-prevailing, 
Day  of  wrath,  that  awful  morning,  etc. 


These  verses,  however,  antedate  the  hymn,  and  are  found  in 
a  MS.  of  the  twelfth  century,  where  they  form  part  of  a  long 
hymn  of  nearly  400  lines  which  was  published  for  the  first  time 
in  complete  form  by  Edelestand  du  Meril  in  his  Poesies  Populaires 
du  Moyen  Age,  and  afterwards  by  Mone. 

So,  too,  Goethe  in  the  Church  Scene  in  Faust  makes  Mephis- 
topheles  suggest  the  unhappy  earthly  future  of  Marguerite,  before 
the  choir  utters  the  terrors  of  the  unearthly  future  in  the  words  : 

Dies  irae,  dies  ilia 
Solvet  saeclum  in  favilla. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  two  grandest  of  all  the 
mediaeval  hymns  should  have  had  for  their  first  lines  almost  start- 
lingly  abrupt  quotations  from  the  Scriptures.  Thus  the  Stabat 
Mater,  by  another  Franciscan,  Jacopone  da  Todi,  commences  with 
a  quotation  from  St.  John  (19  :  25).  The  quotations  from  Sophonias 
and  St.  John  are  only  two  out  of  the  well-nigh  innumerable  illus- 


of  the  world  of  the  Mid 
ththeS  I  and  the  New  Test 

Hov  :ten  as  they  did  on 

this  s 

II. S  N    7AVILLA. 

k  trans  ators  make  an  -      phe 

.  thus        :ed  to  render  . 
7    .  :->  the   norni::  .md 

:h  it  never  is        He  thinks  : 
_.    -  -  stifiabk         a  poetic  paraphrase,  it  can 

:  opos,  a  certain  M.   W. 
St  -    -      -  sars  after  Id      barren's  ess 

afterwards  put    - 
me  on  the  Dies  Ir.:.     which  sc      :      : 
ting  the  Lathi  bead     ith  a  "Literal  Prose  Trans- 
s  of  n.     It  is  one  of  the 

s      hich  have  appeared  on  the  si  and  on  cc  .  - 

J  it,]  -  I       •     -. 

. .-   tes 

The    -  ts     -.::.;.::.       that  the  tra:  slate 

g  rhe  "  Day."     The  confusion  of  ideas  in 
g   .         -  sometimes  transiti   r    ■    sometimes  intra:".- 
that  the  English  diss  oh  >  may 
die  Lat::  ran  be  used  only  trans 

i  the  subject  :ead 

:      The  wore   .     vet  is  taken  <     -  II  Pete 

IO-: :  .  dies  D:  in  quo  coeli  magno 

:.     ero  calore  sohh  terra  autei 

era    e  [mentor.     Cum   igitur  haec    omnia 
hxnd*  sir.:     .     .     .     proper:,   bes  in  advenb  Domini 

per  e:    elementa    vg  iore 

the  Lon    shall  come  as  a  thief:  in 
th  gTeat  v.    . .    x    and  the 


COMMEXT  OX  THE   "DIES  IRAE:  53 

elements  shall  be  melted  with  heat,  and  the  earth  and  the  works 
which  are  in  it  shall  be  burnt  up.  Seeing  then  that  all  these 
things  are  to  be  dissolved','  etc.). 

Mr.  Warren  remarks  that  out  of  his  collection  of  versions, 
31  render  the  word  f civil  la,  ashes;  3,  dust:  2,  dust  and  ashes; 
12,  fire;  10,  flame;  1,  smoke;  I,  embers;  I,  fire  and  smoke  and 
thunder;  1,  crumbling  fire.  Of  all  these,  "embers"  would  seem 
to  be  the  best  translation — but  glowing  embers  would  be  a  better 
one.  For  the  poet  chose  a  strikingly  vivid  word  in  favilla,  which 
does  not  merely  mean  "ashes,''  but  "glowing"  ashes  or  embers. 
The  world  shall  indeed  be  destroyed ;  but  the  whirlwind  of  fire 
shall  scarce  have  consumed  it  ere  the  Judgment  begin. 

III. — Teste  David  cum  Sybilla. 

The  Mantuan  text  has  Petro  instead  of  David.     The  testimony 

of  Peter  is  found  in  his  second  Epistle  I  chapter  3.  verse  7 1 :  "  But 
the  heavens  and  the  earth  which  now  are  .  .  .  are  .  .  . 
reserved  unto  fire  against  the  day  of  judgment  and  perdition  of 
the  ungodly  men ;  "  and  again  (verse  10):  "  But  the  day  of  the 
Lord  shall  come  as  a  thief :  in  which  the  heavens  shall  pass  away 
with  o-reat  violence,  and  the  elements  shall  be  melted  with  £reat 
heat,  and  the  earth  and  the  works  which  are  in  it,  shall  be  burnt 
up."  While  such  texts  as  these  would  naturally  suggest  the 
name  of  Peter,  it  is  probable  that  they  were  not  in  the  mind  of 
the  singer,  who  had  found  in  his  daily  psalmody  so  many  allu-: 
of  David's  to  the  great  Day  :  "  He  shall  rain  snares  upon  sinners  ; 
fire  and  brimstone  and  storms  of  winds  shall  be  the  portion  of 
their  cup  "  (Ps.  10:7);  "  God  shall  come  manifestly,  our  God  shall 
come,  and  shall  not  keep  silence.  A  fire  shall  burn  before  him  ; 
and  a  might}-  tempest  shall  be  round  about  him.  He  shall  call 
heaven  from  above;  and  the  earth,  to  judge  his  people.  Gather 
ye  together  his  saints  to  him  ;  who  set  his  covenant  before  sacri- 
fices. And  the  heavens  shall  declare  his  justice;  for  God  is  :uige  " 
(Ps.  49:  3-6);  and  finally:  "In  the  beginning.  O  Lord,  thou 
foundedst  the  earth,  and  the  heavens  are  the  work  of  thy  hands. 
They  shall  perish,  but  thou  remainest ;  and  all  of  them  shall  grow 
old  like  a  garment.  And  as  a  vesture  thou  shalt  change  them, 
and  they  shall  be  changed''  (Ps.  101 :  26-28), 


54  THE  DOLPHIN. 

Mr.  Warren  notes  the  various  renderings  of  the  line.      Let  us 
add  that  General  Dix  had  first  translated  it 

"  As  from  saint  and  seer  we  borrow," 

but  revised  it  into 

"  David  and  the  Sibyl  warning," 

for  the  curious  reason  that  "  it  was  not  quite  orthodox  to  style 
King  David  a  saint,  though  he  was  in  his  latter  days  a  model  of 
true  penitence.  Besides,  I  believe  there  is  a  Saint  David  in  the 
calendar,  and  there  is  danger  of  confounding  them." 

A  few  French  missals  have  omitted  the  line  and  have  intro- 
duced an  entirely  new  one — 

Crucis  expandens  vexilla, — 

which  is  placed  in    the    middle   of    the    stanza.     The   omission 
attempts  apparently  to  avoid   a  reference  to   the   Sibyl.     Dean 
Trench  accounts  for  the  change  by  the  supposition  of  "  an  unwill- 
ingness to  allow  a  Sibyl  to  appear  as  bearing  witness  to  Christian 
truth ;  "   and   he  thinks  the  reference  to  the  Sibyl  "  quite  in  the 
spirit  of  the  early  and   mediaeval  theology.     In  those  uncritical 
ages  the  Sibylline  verses  were  not  seen  to  be  that  transparent 
forgery  which  indeed  they  are ;  but  were  continually  appealed  to 
as  only  second  to  the  Sacred  Scriptures  in  prophetic  authority ; 
thus  on  this  very  matter  of  the  destruction  of  the  world,  by  Lac- 
tantius,  Inst.  Div.,  vii,  16-24;  c^  Piper,  Method,  d.  Chris tl.  Kunst, 
p.  472-507;    those,  with  other  heathen  testimonies  of  the  same 
kind,  being  not   so   much   subordinated  to  more  legitimate  pro- 
phecy, as  coordinated  with  it,  the  two  being  regarded  as  parallel 
lines  of  prophecy,  the  Church's  and  the  World's,  and  consenting 
witness  to   the   same  truths.     Thus  is  it  in  a  curious  mediaeval 
mystery  on  the   Nativity,  published  in  the  Journal  des  Savans, 
1846,  p.  %%.     It  is  of  simplest  construction.     One  after  another 
patriarchs,  and  prophets,  and  kings  of  the  Old  Covenant  advance 
and  repeat  their  most  remarkable  word  about  Him  that  should 
come ;  but  side  by  side  with  them  a  series  of  heathen  witnesses, 
Virgil,  on  the  ground  of  his  fourth  eclogue,  Nebuchadnezzar '(Dan. 
3  :  25),  and  the  Sibyl ;  and  that  it  was  the  writer's  intention  to 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE." 


55 


parallelize  the  two  series,  and  to  show  that  Christ  had  the  testi- 
mony of  both,  is  plain  from  some  opening  lines  of  the  prologue: — 


O  Judaei,  Verbum  Dei 
Qui  negatis,  Hominem 
Vestrae  legis,  testem  Regis 
Audite  per  ordiHem. 


Et  vos,  gentes,  non  credentes 
Peperisse  virginem, 
Vestrae  gentis  documentis 
Pellite  caliginem.' 


And  such  is  the  meaning  here — '  That  such  a  day  shall  be  has 
the  witness  of  inspiration,  of  David, — and  of  mere  natural  religion, 
of  the  Sibyl — Jew  and  Gentile  alike  bearing  testimony  to  the 
truths  which  we  Christians  believe.'  All  this  makes  it  certain  that 
we  should  read  Teste  David,  and  not  Teste  PetroT  We  may  not 
enter  upon  a  discussion  of  the  authenticity  or  genuineness  of  the 
Sibylline  books.  Billuart  remarks  that  while  some  reject  the 
books  and  oracles  as  Christian  figments,  and  others  accept  them, 
perhaps  the  juster  opinion  is  that  neither  are  the  oracles  Christian 
figments  nor  are  they  genuine  and  incorrupt  {Tract,  de  Incarn., 
Diss.  II,  Digr.  II).  For  a  somewhat  extended  discussion,  the 
volume  Proprieties  of  Migne's  Encyc.  TheoL,  article  Sibylles,  may 
prove  acceptable.  The  author  despatches  the  question  of  the 
authenticity,  etc.,  of  the  oracles  in  a  concluding  summary :  "  Le 
lecteur  .  .  .  fera  bien  de  ne  conserver  les  vers  sibyllins  que 
comme  un  objet  de  pure  curiosite,  nous  ne  disons  pas  de  littera- 
ture,  et  sans  y  attacher  une  plus  grande  importance." 

Mohnike  thinks  that  the  author  of  Dies  Irae  had  in  mind  the 
verses  of  the  Erythraean  Sibyl,  which  Eusebius  gives  in  Greek 
(forming  the  well-known  acrostic,  T^crou?  'Kptarb^  Seov  v to?  acorr/p 
— Jesus  Christ,  Son  of  God,  Saviour)  and  which  St.  Augustine 
quotes,  in  a  Latin  translation  which  attempts  to  preserve,  poorly 
enough,  the  transliterated  Greek  acrostic.3  Mystical-minded, 
St.  Augustine  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  there  are  just  twenty- 
seven  lines  in  the  extract,  and  that  twenty-seven  is  the  cube  of 
three;  and  that  "if  you  join  the  initial  letters  of  the  five  Greek 
words  "  you  will  get  the  word  t'%#t>?,  "  that  is,  '  fish,'  in  which  word 
Christ  is  mystically  understood,  because  He  was  able  to  live,  that 
is,  to  exist,  without  sin  in  the  abyss  of  this  mortality  as  in  the 
depth  of  waters."      The  saint  also  points  out   that  in  the  Latin 


3  De  Civ.  Dei,  xviii,  23. 


56  THE  DOLPHIN. 

verses  "  the  meaning  of  the  Greek  is  correctly  given,  although  not 
in  the  exact  order  of  the  lines  as  connected  with  the  initial  letters." 
The  translation,  with  the  acrostic  rectified,  appears  in  another 
rendering : 

Judicii  adventu  tellus  sudore  madescet ; 
E  coelo  veniet  princeps  per  saecla  futurus, 
Scilicet  ut  carnem  praesens  ut  judicet  orbem  ; 
Omnis  homo,  fidusque  deum  infidusque  videbit, 
Una  cum  Sanctis  excelsum  fine  sub  aevi. 
Sede  sedens  animas  censebit  corpora  et  ipsa, 
Chersos  erit  mundus,  spinas  feret  undique  tellus. 
Reiicient  simulacra  homines  et  munera  Ditis,  etc. 

The  last  two  lines  just  quoted  preserve  the  "  Ch  "  and  the 
"  Re"  of  the  Greek,  as  well  as  obviate  the  difficulty  alluded  to  by 
St.  Augustine.  The  acrostic  has  been  rendered  several  times  into 
English  ;  by  Dr.  Schaff,  in  his  edition  of  "The  City  of  God,"  by  a 
writer  in  the  Christian  Remembrancer  (Oct.,  1861),  by  an  old 
translator  of  St.  Augustine,  J.  Healey  (1620),  whose  version, 
"  very  much  forced  and  labored,"  begins  : 

"  In  sign  of  Doomsday  the  whole  world  shall  sweat  : 
Ever  to  reign,  a  King  in  heavenly  seat 
Shall  come  to  judge  all  flesh." 

The  following  translation 4  similarly  preserves  the  acrostical 
form  in  English : 

"Judgment  shall  moisten  the  earth  with  the  sweat  of  its  standard, 
hh  Ever  enduring,  behold  the  King  shall  come  through  the  ages, 

\/±  Sent  to  be  here  in  the  flesh,  and  judge  at  the  last  of  the  world. 

Q  O  God,  the  believing  and  faithless  alike  shall  behold  Thee 

i-3  Uplifted  with  saints,  when  at  last  the  ages  are  ended. 

M  Sifted  before  Him  are  souls  in  the  flesh  for  His  Judgment. 


Hid  in  thick  vapors,  while  desolate  lieth  the  earth. 
r^  Rejected  by  men  are  the  idols  and  long  hidden  treasures  ; 

Earth  is  consumed  by  the  fire,  and  it  searcheth  the  ocean  and  heaven 
|_H  Issuing  forth,  it  destroyeth  the  terrible  portals  of  hell. 

M  Saints  in  their  body  and  soul  freedom  and  light  shall  inherit ; 

H  Those  who  are  guilty  shall  burn  in  fire  and  brimstone  forever. 

Occult  actions  revealing,  each  one  shall  publish  his  secrets  ; 

Secrets  of  every  man's  heart  God  shall  reveal  in  the  light. 


1/ 


4  The  City  of  God.     Translated  by  the  Rev.  Marcus  Dods.      Edinburgh.     Vol. 
II,  p.  242. 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  57 

~  Then  shall  be  weeping  and  wailing,  yea,  and  gnashing  of  teeth  ; 

f_.  Eclipsed  is  the  sun,  and  silenced  the  stars  in  their  chorus. 

q  Over  and  gone  is  the  splendor  of  moonlight,  melted  the  heaven. 

-1  Uplifted  by  Him  are  the  valleys,  and  cast  down  the  mountains. 

j  Utterly  gone  among  men  are  distinctions  of  lofty  and  lowly. 

h- 1  Into  the  plains  rush  the  hills,  the  skies  and  oceans  are  mingled. 

O  Oh,  what  an  end  of  all  things  !   earth  broken  in  pieces  shall  perish  ; 

M  Swelling  together  at  once  shall  the  waters  and  flames  flow  in  rivers. 

1^  Sounding  the  archangel's  trumpet  shall  peal  down  from  heaven, 

£-*,  Over  the  wicked  who  groan  in  their  guilt  and  their  manifold  sorrows. 

^3  Trembling,  the  earth  shall  be  opened,  revealing  chaos  and  hell. 

P£  Every  king  before  God  shall  stand  in  that  day  to  be  judged. 

^  Rivers  of  fire  and  of  brimstone  shall  fall  from  the  heavens." 


Strikingly  suggestive  though  these  lines  be  of  the  theme  and 
content  of  the  Dies  Ii-ae,  Daniel  in  his  Thesaurus5  is  inclined  to  think 
that  the  mediaeval  singer  caught  some  of  his  suggestions  rather 
from  portions  of  the  Sybilline  Oracles  other  than  the  locus  classicus 
just  quoted  in  translation  from  the  City  of  God.  He  gives  five 
quotations  in  Chateillon's  Latin  version,  and  not  inappropriately 
asks  ;  "  Sed  unde  Saul  inter  prophetas  ?  Quid  Sibylla  in  carmine 
ecclesiae  ?"  The  Sybilline  prophecy  is  indeed  so  explicit  as  to 
justify  anyone  in  wondering  how  Saul  should  be  found  amongst 
the  prophets !  Daniel,  however,  does  not  ask  his  questions  re- 
provingly, but  quotes  Staudenmaier,6  who,  apparently  crediting 
the  Sibylline  Oracles,  extols  their  profound  and  lofty  assertion  of 
the  providence  of  God  over  His  creation,  shows  how  the  super- 
natural revelations  of  the  prophets  have  their  counterpart  in  the 
Sibylline  Oracles  that  enlightened  the  pagans,  while  both  declare 
the  justice  of  God  in  language  which  culminates  in  the  grand 
description  of  the  consummation  of  all  things. 

In  deference  to  the  critical  thought  that  declares  the  Sibylline 
Oracles  to  be  spurious,  or  at  least  corrupt,  should  the  line  be 
changed,  as  we  have  found  some  of  the  French  texts  doing  ?  The 
task  would  be  a  long  one  to  eliminate  the  Sibyls  from  the  works  of 
the  Fathers,  the  hymns  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  from  such  master- 
pieces of  Christian  Art  as  the  five  Sibyls  in  the  Sistine  Chapel,  the 

5 II,  p.  124. 

6  Geist  des  Christenthums,  etc.,  II,  p.  483. 


58  THE  DOLPHIN. 

Delphic  Sibyls  in  Van  Eyck's  altar-piece  at  Ghent,  the  eight  in 
Ulm  Cathedral,  not  to  speak  of  the  series  of  twelve  which  once 
existed  at  Cheyney  Court  in  Herefordshire.  Once  we  begin 
tampering  with  the  text  of  the  Dies  Irae,  we  shall  have  the  French 
"  Crucis  expandens  vexilla  "  to  get  rid  of  the  Sibyl,  and  the  Ger- 
man "  Petro  "  to  get  rid  of  the"  David."  "  The  old  wine  is  the 
best." 

The  Protestant  Dr.  SchafT  remarked  that  "  the  mythical 
Sibyl,  which,  as  the  representative  of  the  unconscious  prophecies 
of  heathendom,  is  here  placed  alongside  the  singer  and  prophet  of 
Israel,  has  long  since  lost  the  importance  which  it  once  occupied 
in  the  apologetic  theory  of  the  fathers  and  schoolmen.  Yet  there 
is  a  truth  underlying  this  use  made  of  the  Sibylline  oracles,  and 
the  fourth  Eclogue  of  Virgil,  inasmuch  as  heathenism,  in  its  nobler 
spirits,  was  groping  in  the  dark  after  '  the  unknown  God,'  and  bore 
negative  and  indirect  testimony  to  Christ,  as  the  Old  Testament 
positively  and  directly  predicted  and  foreshadowed  His  coming." 
{Christ  in  Song,  p.  374.) 

II.  II. 

Quantus  tremor  est  futurus  What  trembling  there  shall  be 

Quando  judex  est  venturus  When  the  Judge  shall  come 

Cuncta  stricte  discussurus.  To  investigate  rigidly  all  things. 

Little  need  be  added  to  Mr.  Warren's  interesting  analysis  of  this 
stanza.  It  recalls  the  words  of  our  Lord  in  St.  Luke :  "  And 
there  shall  be  signs  in  the  sun  .  .  .  and  upon  the  earth  dis- 
tress of  nations  .  .  .  Men  withering  away  for  fear,  and  ex- 
pectation of  what  shall  come  upon  the  whole  world  .  .  . 
And  then  they  shall  see  the  Son  of  man  coming  in  a  cloud  with 
great  majesty." 

Many  editors  and  translators  of  the  hymn  have  indulged  in 
rhetorical  appreciations  of  the  hymn  as  a  whole,  but  in  very  few 
instances  have  undertaken  to  analyze  any  verse  of  the  hymn  in  de- 
tail from  a  poetical  standpoint.  An  approach  to  such  analysis  is 
found  in  Duffield's  Latin  Hymns,  where  the  editor  says,  apropos 
oftheMantuan  prologue  and  Haemmerlin  epilogue(which he  thinks 
are  "feeble,  lumbering  excrescences,  and  are  fastened  to  it  in  such 
an  external  way  as  to  destroy  the  unity  of  the  poem  if  left  as  they 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  59 

stand  ") :  "  The  text  in  the  Missal  gives  us  a  new  conception  of 
the  powers  of  the  Latin  tongue.  Its  wonderful  wedding  of  sense 
to  sound — the  u  assonance  in  the  second  stanza,  the  0  assonance 
in  the  third,  and  the  a  and  i  assonances  in  the  fourth,  for  instance 
— the  sense  of  organ  music  that  runs  through  the  hymn,  even  un- 
accompanied, as  distinctly  as  through  the  opening  verses  of 
Lowell's  '  Vision  of  Sir  Launfal,'  and  the  transition  as  clearly 
marked  in  sound  as  in  meaning  from  lofty  adoration  to  pathetic  en- 
treaty, impart  a  grandeur  and  dignity  to  the  Dies  Irae  which  are 
unique  in  this  kind  of  writing."  Here  attention  is  directed  to  a 
poetic  value — that  of  assonance — in  the  hymn  ;  and  the  quota- 
tion from  Duffield  is  made  in  this  place,  as  the  illustration  of  the 
assonance  begins  with  this  second  stanza. 

III.  III. 

Tuba  miruni  spargens  sonum  The  trumpet  scattering  a  wondrous  sound 

Per  sepulchra  regionum  Through  the  sepulchres  of  the  earth 

Coget  omnes  ante  thronum.  Shall  gather  all  before  the  throne. 

I  find  in  Saintsbury's  Flourishing  of  Romance  (p.  9)  an  interesting 
word  on  the  first  line :  "  It  would  be  possible,  indeed,  to  illus- 
trate a  complete  dissertation  on  the  methods  of  expression  in 
serious  poetry  from  the  fifty-one  lines  of  the  Dies  Irae.  Rhyme, 
alliteration,  cadence,  and  adjustment  of  vowel  and  consonant 
values,— all  these  things  receive  perfect  expression  in  it,  or,  at 
least,  in  the  first  thirteen  stanzas,  for  the  last  four  are  a  little  in- 
ferior. It  is  quite  astonishing  to  reflect  upon  the  careful  art  or 
the  felicitous  accident  of  such  a  line  as 

Tuba  mirum  spargens  sonum, 

with  the  thud  of  the  trochee7  falling  in  each  instance  in  a  different 
vowel ;  and  still  more  on  the  continuous  sequence  of  five  stanzas, 
from  Judex  ei'go  to  non  sit  cassus,  in  which  a  word  could  not  be 
displaced  or  replaced  by  another  without  loss." 

An  old  abecedary  on  the  Last  Judgment,  ascribed  by  some 
to  the  Venerable  Bede,  refers  to  the  trumpet : 

Clangor  tubae  per  quaternas  Clangor  of  the  trumpet  sounding, 

Terrae  plagas  concinens  Unto  earth' s  four  quarters  spread 

Vivos  una  mortuosque  Shall  before  the  Judge  advancing 

Christo  ciet  obviam.  Summon  both  the  quick  and  dead. 

7  Of  course  no  one  of  the   four  is  a  pure  classical   trochee  :  but  all  obey  the 
trochaic  rhythm. 


60  THE  DOLPHIN. 

The  justness  of  Mr.  Saintsbury's  admiration  for  the  line 

Tuba  mirum  spargens  sonum 

is  obvious  when  we  compare  concinens  with  spargens  sonum,  or 
per  quatemas  terrae  plagas  with  per  sepulchra  regionum,  or  ciet 
with  coget.  Coget,  by  the  way,  recalls  a  somewhat  similiar  word 
coaxes  used  by  Horace  in  his  address  to  Mercury  (Bk.  I,  ix,  5) : 

Tu  pias  laetis  animas  reponis 
Sedibus,  virgaque  levem  coerces 
Aurea  turbam,  superis  deorum 
Gratus  et  imis. 

The  coercion  (coerces)  used  by  Mercury  is  as  gentle  as  it  is  in- 
sistent— the  rod  he  uses  is  a  golden  one,  yet  the  airy  flock  of  the 
blest  souls  must  attain  their  happy  thrones.  The  idea  suggested 
is  that  of  a  shepherd  shepherding  his  fleecy  flock  into  happy 
pastures.  Now  with  respect  to  the  hymn's  use  of  the  word  coget, 
it  has  several  times  occurred  to  me  that  the  singer  had  in  mind  a 
similar  metaphor  ;  for  afterwards,  in  a  more  formal  way,  the  figure 
is  elaborated  : 

Inter  oves  locum  praesta, 
Et  ab  hoedis  me  sequestra, 
Statuens  in  parte  dextra. 

The  souls  of  men,  standing  before  the  tribunal  of  God,  shall  be 
dealt  with  after  the  parable  of  our  Saviour  ;  and  the  sheep  of  the 
Gospel  picture  must  be  separated  from  the  goats.  Virgil  uses 
cogere  in  this  sense  :  "  Cogite  oves  pueri."  Those  whom  the  last 
trumpet  must  bring  before  the  judgment  seat  comprise  not  alone 
the  wicked,  but  as  well  the  "  beloved  of  my  Father"  ;  and  the 
Horatian  metaphor  of  the  flock  shepherded  by  Mercury  might 
perhaps  be  applicable  to  the  picture  of  the  trump  that  is  to 
gather  'all,'  "the  good  and  the  bad,  the  just  and  the  unjust." 
Force  is  implied  by  both  words,  coerceo  and  cogo ;  but  just  as 
Horace  adds  to  the  idea  of  "  force"  that  of  gentleness  in  its  ex- 
ercise, so  it  may  be  that  in  the  hymn,  too,  a  similar  implication 
would  not  prove  amiss.  Mr.  Warren  thinks  it  difficult  to  find  a 
good  word  for  coget  in  English,  for  "  summon  and  bid  are  perhaps 
hardly  strong  enough  ;"  and  he  prefers  the  stronger  word  cite. 
And  yet,  in  such  an  interpretation,  cite  is  not  strong  enough ;  for 


BROTHER  AND  SISTER.  6 1 

although  we  know  that,  as  Mr.  Warren  argues,  a  citation,  if  un- 
heeded, will  be  followed  by  stronger  measures  of  the  law — still  it 
may  be  disregarded,  whereas  the  last  trumpet  shall  be  of  all-com- 
pelling power.  On  the  other  hand,  the  shepherd's  crook,  however 
gentle  in  its  suggestion,  is  always  effective  for  its  purpose.  Would 
not  the  verb  shepherd  answer  the  requirements  of  coget  ? 

Then  shall  the  trump's  resounding  tone 
Scattered  through  graves  of  every  zone 
Shepherd  all  souls  before  the  throne. 

An  additional  reason  for  such  an  interpretation  is  furnished  by  the 
text  of  St.  Matthew  describing  the  last  trumpet  (24:  31): 
"  And  he  shall  send  his  angels  with  a  trumpet,  and  a  great  voice : 
and  they  shall  gather  together  his  elect  from  the  four  winds,  from 
the  farthest  parts  of  the  heavens  to  the  utmost  bounds  of  them." 
Here  the  effect  of  the  trumpet  is  that  of  "  gathering  together,"  or 
shepherding  from  all  parts  into  one  fold.  St.  Paul  (I  Cor.  1 5  : 
52)  lays  no  stress  on  the  legal  citing  power  of  the  trumpet,  but 
describes  its  effect  merely :  "In  a  moment,  in  the  twinkling  of 
an  eye,  at  the  last  trumpet :  for  the  trumpet  shall  sound,  and  the 
dead  shall  rise  again  incorruptible  :  and  we  shall  be  changed." 
So,  too,  in  I  Thess.8 

H.  T.  Henry. 
Overbrook  Seminary,  Pa. 


BROTHER  AND  SISTER. 
Chapter  XVIII. — A  Life  for  a  Life. 

AFTER  my  departure  my  sister's  disease  began  to  develop 
with  alarming  rapidity.  She  failed  visibly  from  day  to  day. 
Sleeplessness,  night-sweats,  an  unconquerable  aversion  to  food, 
soon  exhausted  her  little  remaining  strength.  Fine  thread-like 
lines  of  blood  began  to  show  in  the  expectorations,  and  then 
hemorrhages,  more  and  more  severe,  announced  the  fatal  progress 
of  the  malady  which  was  fast  undermining  a  constitution  naturally 
vigorous  but  worn  out  before  its  time  by  the  pious  excesses  of 
charity.     Marguerite  was  only  thirty-two  years  old. 

84:  15- 


62  THE  DOLPHIN. 

At  this  juncture  Charles  was  ordered  to  Senegal  as  Lieutenant- 
Governor.  This  was  a  hard  blow  for  him  under  the  circumstances. 
That  he  would  never  see  Marguerite  again  was  almost  certain,  and, 
to  add  to  his  hardships,  he  was  forced  to  leave  for  his  new  post 
quite  alone.  For  several  years  past  his  wife's  health  had  caused 
him  great  anxiety,  and  it  was  out  of  the  question  to  take  her  to 
such  a  place.  The  unwholesome  climate  would  have  proved 
fatal  in  a  few  months.  Lucie,  on  the  other  hand,  could  not  bear 
to  be  left  behind.  The  very  idea  upset  her  completely,  and  she 
was  also  much  distressed  because  she  could  not  go  to  Anjou  and 
be  with  her  sister-in-law.  The  physicians  absolutely  forbade  it. 
Indeed,  she  could  not  have  done  much  good  at  the  Hutterie,  and 
would  have  been  more  of  a  hindrance  than  a  help,  as  the  little 
woman  did  not  know  the  first  thing  about  taking  care  of  a  sick 
person. 

So  it  seemed  that  our  dear  Guitte  was  to  be  left  to  the  care  of 
Cillette  and  Lexis  at  the  Hutterie.  They  were  faithful  and  de- 
voted servants,  without  doubt,  and  had  been  with  their  mistress 
ever  since  their  childhood,  and  fairly  worshipped  her,  but  the 
poor  creatures  were  clumsy  and  incapable  of  giving  the  poor 
invaiid  the  care  and  attention  which  her  condition  demanded. 

When  I  heard  of  Charles'  orders,  and  knew  that  Lucie  could 
not  go  to  Anjou,  I  at  first  thought  of  going  home  myself  and  stay- 
ing until  the  end  came ;  but  Providence  ordered  all  for  the  best. 
A  great  friend  of  Marguerite's,  Mademoiselle  de  la  Croix,  volun- 
teered to  go  and  live  with  her  and  take  charge  of  the  house-keep- 
ing. This  proposal  was  most  gratefully  accepted,  and  Mademoi- 
selle de  la  Croix  was  soon  established  at  the  head  of  affairs.  Her 
companionship  was  a  great  boon  to  my  sister,  for  she  not  only 
relieved  her  of  all  external  responsibilities,  but  cheered  her,  and 
helped  her  to  bear  the  trying  ordeal  of  her  illness. 

The  good  country  people  were  in  a  state  of  utter  consternation 
when  they  heard  that  Mademoiselle  Leclere  was  in  danger  of 
death  and  that  the  physician  had  no  hope  for  her  recovery.  Their 
grief  was,  if  possible,  even  more  intense  than  when  she  had  come 
so  near  dying  ten  years  before. 

Pilgrimages  to  Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secour,  novenas,  Holy 
Communions,  days  and  nights  before  the  Blessed  Sacrament — all 


THE  DOLPHIN. 


Vol.  VII.  February,   1905.  No.  2. 


Red.     "  An'  I  hope  we'll  have  a  rale  night  of  it." 

"  I  hope  so,"  said  Donal,  moving  homeward. 

"  I  say,  Donal,"  said  Red,  as  if  suddenly  recollecting  himself. 

"  Well,  Red,  what  is  it?"  said  Donal. 

"  Tis  a  family  business,  an'  I  suppose  I  shouldn't  interfare," 
said  Red,  blushing  in  the  darkness.  "  But  they  say  your  intinded, 
Donal,  don't  want  Nodlag  on  the  same  flure  wid  her,  an'  the 
ould  woman  here  does  be  lonesome  sometimes " 

"  You  mane  you'll  like  to  have  her  here  ?"  said  Donal. 

"  That  is,  av  there's  no  room  for  her  at  Glenanaar,"  said  Red. 

"  So  long  as  there's  bit,  bite  and  sup  yonder,"  said  Donal 
solemnly,  "  Nodlag  will  have  her  place  at  our  table,  no  matter 
who  comes  in " 

"  Oh,  I  meant  no  offince,"  said  Red. 

"  An'  I  take  none,"  said  Donal.  "  An'  at  laste,  it  is  somethin' 
to  know  that  she  has  a  friend  in  you,  Red,  if  all  fails  her." 

"  That  she  has,  and  some  day  I  may  have  the  chance  to  prove 
it,"  said  Red.     "  Good-night !" 

P.  A.  Sheehan. 

Doneraile,  Ireland. 


1 86  THE  DOLPHIN. 

NOTES  ON  THE  ENGLISH  VERSIONS  OF  THE  "DIES  IRAE." 

TN  the  following  article  we  present  Mr.  Warren's  treatment  oi 
v  the  three  stanzas,  IV  to  VI,  of  the  famous  sequence,  followed 
by  Dr.  Henry's  literary  comment  on  the  same  stanzas.  The 
reader  familiar  with  the  literature  of  this  subject  may  have  noticed 
that  not  only  Mr.  Warren,  but  commentators  generally  have  done 
scant  justice  to  American  Catholic  translators  of  the  Hymn,  and 
it  is  therefore  pleasant  to  note  that  Dr.  Henry  has  laid  particular 
stress  upon  the  fertility  which  characterizes  this  field  of  English 
versions.  As  a  result  partly  of  our  suggestion  made  in  the  pages 
of  The  Dolphin,  that  readers  of  these  articles  would  kindly  indi- 
cate to  us  any  new  translations  of  the  hymn  made  after  the  year 
1895,  Dr.  Henry  has  been  enabled  to  record  no  less  than  thirty- 
five  Catholic  versions,  only  a  few  of  which  had  been  noticed 
heretofore  from  the  viewpoint  of  literary  comment.  Thus  the 
value  of  Dr.  Henry's  articles  consists  not  merely  in  the  fact  that 
he  offers  original  criticism  on  a  theme  of  world-wide  literary 
interest,  but  also  in  this  that  he  directs  attention  for  the  first  time 
to  the  labors  of  Catholic  translators  among  the  host  of  hymnolo- 
gists  who  have  occupied  themselves  with  this  theme. — Editor. 

Stanzas  IV-VI. 

By  the  late  C.  F.  S.  Warren,  M.A. 

4.   Mors  stupebit,  et  Natura, 
Cum  resurget  creatura, 
Judicanti  responsura. 

"The  old  order  changeth,  yielding  place  to  new."  The  first 
line  of  this  verse  probably  describes  simply  the  instant  cessation  at  the 
last  day  of  the  whole  former  course  of  things,  without  any  direct  refer- 
ence to  the  text  which  tells  us  that  Death  and  Hell  shall  be  cast  into 
the  lake  of  fire.  Though  Crashaw  would  seem  to  have  had  this  in  his 
mind  by  his  line — 

"  Horror  of  Nature,  Hell,  and  Death  !" 

and  one  version  of  Dr.  Coles,  instead  of,  like  Crashaw,  adding  Hell, 
substitutes  it  for  Nature.      But  most  versions  have  Death  and  Nature 


XOTES  OX  THE  "DIES  IRAEX  187 

(trochaic),  or  Nature  and  Death  (iambic),  a  few  Death  alone,  and 
Archbishop  Trench  Nature  alone — 

"What  amazement  shall  o'ertake 
Nature  when  the  dead  shall  wake, 
Answer  to  the  Judge  to  make." 

Besides  several  very  general  versions,  two  (Isaac  Williams  and  Father 
Caswall)  have  written  Death  and  Time  with  a  remembrance  probably 
of  the  angelic  oath  that  there  shall  be  time  no  longer ;  Archbishop 
Benson  has  Earth  and  Death,  and  Mr.  W.  H.  Robinson  Death  and 
Life.  This  last  translation  is  perhaps  a  rather  daring  one,  but  I  am 
tempted  to  think  that  it  best  represents  the  original  word,  which  is 
plainly  opposed  to  Mors.     The  whole   verse   is  this,  and   is  a  good 

one — 

"Death  and  Life  astonished  view 
Every  creature  rise  anew, 
Rise  to  meet  the  judgment  true." 

Among  others  of  the  more  ordinary  type,  Dean  Alford's  is  one  of  the 
best — 

' '  Death  shall  shrink  and  Nature  quake 

When  all  creatures  shall  awake, 

Answer  to  their  God  to  make," 

though  I  rather  doubt  the  replacing  of  Judge  by  God.  One  iVmerican 
writer  has  this,  plainly  taking  Nature  (as  is  shown  by  the  adjective) 
in  the  so  common  modern  sense  of  the  mere  external  face  of  things — 

'  *  Death  shall  die,  fair  Nature  too, 
As  the  creature,  risen  anew, 
Answers  to  his  God's  review," 

a  stanza  which  is  an  admirable  instance  of  the  uncertainty  pervading 
so  many  versions  :  fair  Nature  is  a  decided  blunder,  and  indeed  it 
must  be  said  rather  a  silly  one  ;  but  Death  shall  die  is  a  fine  expres- 
sion, first  used  in  the  Saturday  Magazine  paraphrase  of  1832  by 
Canon  Parkinson ;  it  brings  to  mind  that  grand  sonnet  of  Donne's 
(most  readily  perhaps  to  be  found  in  Trench's  Household  Poetry,  p. 
144),  which  ends  thus — 

"Why  swellest  thou  then? 
One  short  sleep  past  we  wake  eternally, 
And  Death  shall  be  no  more  :   Death,  thou  shalt  die." 


1 88  THE  DOLPHIN. 

With  respect  to  the  translation  of  stupebit,  it  need  only  be  said 
that  it  seems  better,  like  Thomas  of  Celano,  to  apply  one  word,  and 
that  a  simple  one,  to  both  subjects,  Death  and  Nature,  rather  than  to 
endeavor  to  differentiate  that  which  is  predicted  of  each,  and  to  go 
about  in  search  of  elaborate  expressions  to  that  end.  Where,  as  is 
here  the  case,  almost  every  writer  has  a  different  form  of  language,  it 
is  not  easy  to  select  examples  :  one  striking  expression  is  used  by  the 
old  Rosarists,  who  make  Nature  and  Death  stand  at  gaze ;  but  as  a 
rule  the  error  has  been  greatly  in  the  direction  of  too  much  elabora- 
tion ;  if  it  may  be  so  said  without  irreverence,  such  phrases  as  Death 
shall  swoon  and  Nature  sicken  are  far  too  like  the  words  of  a  physician 
who  should  describe  with  accuracy  the  symptoms  of  his  patients.  The 
strangest  version  of  this  kind  is  the  following : 

"  Death  aghast  and  Nature  dying 
Start  and  swoon." 

Dean  Stanley,  however,  having  avoided  the  (so  to  say)  technical  words 
above  quoted,  has  produced  a  striking  couplet — 

"Nature  then  shall  stand  aghast, 
Death  himself  be  overcast ; ' ' 

and  Mr.  Simms'  is  also  fine — 

"Death,  the  last  enemy,  shall  fall, 
And  Nature  cease  to  be. " 

Mr.   Blake's   version    in    The  Lamp,  1856,   is  good  too   in   its  own 

style — 

' '  Nature  will  tremble  with  affright 
And  Death  recoil  before  the  sight, 
When  God  shall  come  to  judge  with  might. ' ' 

The  word  creatura  is,  of  course,  used  as  we  now  say  ' '  the  crea- 
tion ;"  it  is  all  creation  that  is  here  stated  to  rise,  not  man  simply ;  as 
Mr.  T.  D.  Morgan  has  in  this  verse  taken  it — 

"  Death  shall  grow  pale  and  Nature  quake 
To  see  created  man  awake, 
An  answer  to  his  Judge  to  make," 

nor  does  the  last  line  prove  Mr.  Morgan  right,  for  angels  too  are  to 
be  judged.      I  think  we  are  familiar  enough,  from  the  Epistles  of  St. 


NOTES  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  189 

Paul,  with  the  creature  in  the  sense  of  the  creation  to  use  it  so  here, 
though  if  we  do  we  should  apply  no  epithet  to  it.  I  do  not  speak 
positively  ;  but  if  not  this  phrase,  creation  should  be  used  in  preference 
to  each  or  every  creature  or  all  creatures — it  seems  hardly  well  to  use 
the  English  form  of  the  original  word  in  any  but  the  exact  original 
sense;  and  such  phrases  as  the  pale  offender  (Lord  Roscommon),  or 
the  buried  ages  (Father  Caswall),  should,  strictly  speaking,  be  kept  for 
less  literal  versions. 

But  I  must  go  on  to  my  tabulation,  which  will  be  more  incomplete 
even  than  usual ;  the  phrases  chosen  (especially  to  represent  the 
stupebit)  are  so  very  various  that  it  is  impossible  to  give  them  all,  and 
a  selection  can  be  but  made  of  some  which  are  more  important  or  less 
common. 

Line  i.  —  Nature  and  death,  60  ;  death  (alone),  7  ;  nature  (alone),  1 ; 
death  and  #// nature,  1  ;  death  and  time,  3  ;  death  and  life, 
2  •  death  and  creation,  1  ;  earth  and  death,  1  j  death, 
earth,  skies,  1  ;   the  world,  1. 

Quake,    13;    quiver,    1;    shake,    1;    shiver,    1.      Other 
words  beginning  with  q  and  s  are  quail,  start,  sink,  shrink, 
sicken,  swoon.     Of  phrases  the  commonest  is  stand  (or  be) 
aghast,  8  ;  stand  at  gaze,  1 . 
Line  ii. — The  creature,  7  ;  every  (or  each)  creature,  7  ;  the  (or  all) 
creatures,    5;   creation,    12;   the  dead,  13;    man,  4;   man- 
kind, 2  ;   mortals,  2  ;   earth,  flesh. 
Line  Hi. — Judge,  24;  judge  and  master,  1;  judicature,  1;   God,  6. 
Rise,  or  arise,  24  ;  wake,  or  awake,  11. 
Answer,  12;   make  (or  give)  answer,  12. 

5.  Liber  scriptus  proferetur, 
In  quo  totum  continetur, 
Unde  mundus  judicetur. 

The  judgment  was  set  and  the  books  were  opened  (Dan.  7  : 
10).  This  verse  of  Daniel  the  prophet  would  so  plainly  tell  us,  if  we 
wanted  telling,  what  book  the  ' '  liber  scriptus ' '  is,  or  rather  what 
books  are  represented  by  it,  that  the  mistake  of  Mr.  Hutton  in  the 
Spectator  is  a  very  strange  one.      He  writes  thus  : 

"Then  shall  the  book  divine  appear 
Where  every  word  of  God  stands  clear 
For  which  the  world  must  answer  here, ' ' 


190  THE  DOLPHIN. 

taking  the  "  liber  scriptus  "  to  be  the  Bible ;  stating  indeed  in  his 
subsequent  analysis l  that  he  so  takes  it.  This  is  a  solitary  case  ;  but 
into  an  error  of  another  kind  many  translators  have  fallen  by  speaking 
only  of  what  Dr.  Dobbin  calls  our  "daily  defalcations,"  only,  if  one 
may  so  say,  of  the  debtor's  side  of  the  account  and  disregarding  the 
creditor's.  But  the  book  of  judgment  contains  all  deeds  of  men  what- 
ever, good  and  bad  ;  and  in  a  translation  of  the  Dies  Iroz  the  original 
should  not  be  so  far  narrowed  as  to  exclude  its  one -half.  The  true 
meaning  is  clearly  given  in  Mackellar's  version — 

"The  written  book  will  forth  be  brought 
With  good  and  evil  records  fraught, 
And  man  be  judged  for  deed  and  thought," 

in  what  must  be  called  the  "  Thomas  a  Kempis  "  version — 

"Then  is  brought  forth  that  great  record 
Containing  each  thought,  work  and  word 
Which  damns  or  saves  before  this  council  board," 

and  in  another  style  by  Mr.  Justice  O'Hagan,  who  remembered  the 
text  just  quoted — 

"Open  then  with  all  recorded 
Stands  the  book  from  whence  awarded 
Doom  shall  pass  with  deed  accorded. ' ' 

Little  more  need  now  be  said  on  the  two  first  lines  of  this  verse ; 
the  actual  words  taken  to  turn  liber  and  mundus  are  very  commonly 
the  best  and  simplest  ones,  book  and  world ;  and  though  a  few  idle 
epithets,2  such  as  the  mystic  leaves  of  the  dread  book,  are  occasionally 
found,  or  the  leaves  "burn,"  or  the  whole  book  perhaps  "glares," 
or  is  not  a  book  at  all,  but  a  "  huge  unwieldly  volume,"  a  description 
which,  suggesting  as  it  does  nothing  but  an  enormous  bank  ledger,  by 
no  means  adds  to  the  dignity  of  the  idea — yet  the  versions,  where  free 
from  the  mistakes  already  mentioned,  are  so  far  tolerably  good.  Where 
failures  chiefly  shew  themselves  is  in  the  third  line,  either  by  sinking 
it  altogether  or  by  such  careless  work  as  this — 

1  This  analysis  is  a  singularly  mistaken  one.  The  writer  writes  of  a  silver-toned 
trumpet — of flute-like  notes — charming  all  by  suasive  coercion,  by  invisible  compulsion, 
before  the  judgment  seat  !     Fancy  such  epithets  of  the  trump  of  God. 

2  A  version  in  Lippincotfs  Magazine,  June,  1869,  calls  it  "writ  in  blood;" 
which  if  intended  to  have  any  meaning  is  wrong,  and  if  not,  is  idle. 


NOTES  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  191 

' '  Comes  that  Judge  His  book  unsealing, 
Secret  writ  of  doom  revealing ; 
All  attent  but  none  appealing. ' ' 

— Dr.  Macgill,  1876. 

"Then  the  mighty  book  unsealing 
Whence  all  deeds  shall  have  revealing, 
God  shall  judge  the  world  appealing.'" 

—Round  Table,  N.  Y.,  Feb.  23,  1867. 

Which  two  versions  I  put  together  for  the  sake  of  shewing  the  directly 
opposite  statements  they  make,  the  idle  character  of  the  former,  and 
the  mistaken  one  of  the  latter.  For  what  appeal  could  then  possibly 
be  made  ?  and  if  the  idea  be  introduced  which  is  expressed  by  the 
laxer  use  of  the  word,  it  should  be  worked  out  as  Crashaw  has  worked 
it  out  in  the  grand  lines — 

"O  that  Judge,  Whose  hand,  Whose  eye, 
None  can  endure,  yet  none  can  fly ;" 

where  none  can  endure  gives  the  cause  which  a  lost  soul  may  be  per- 
haps imagined  to  attempt  to  shew,  and  then  none  can  fly  the  utter 
uselessness  of  it.  An  appeal  indeed  there  is,  or  rather  has  been  ;  but 
it  must  be  made  in  due  time,  before  the  time  in  which  this  verse  places 
us  ;   and  this,  too,  Crashaw  gives  us — 

' '  But  Thou  givest  leave,  dread  Lord,  that  we 
Take  refuge  from  Thyself  in  Thee, ' ' 

to  which  appeal  we  shall  come  in  the  eighth  verse,  after  the  first  six 
have  described  the  judgment,  and  the  seventh  has  shown  the  im- 
possibility of  an  appeal  then. 

Line  i. — Book,  54  ;  books,  5  ;  volume,  7  ;  doomsday  book,  dooms- 
day volume,  doom-book,  book  of  doom,  each  1  ;  record,  3 ; 
scroll,  2;  roll,  2;  writing,  2;  pages,  2;  page,  1. 

Epithets.     Written,  12  ;  close-writ,  1  ;   clear-writ,  1  ;  of 
ages,  4;  of  record,  3;  great,  3;  awful,  3;  solemn,  2. 

Line  ii. — Can  hardly  be  tabulated. 

Line  Hi. — World,  23  ;  living  and  dead,  4;  quick  and  dead,  6  ;  judge, 
5  ;  arraign,  7. 

6.   Judex  ergo  cum  sedebit, 
Quidquid  latet  apparebit : 
Nil  inultum  remanebit. 


192  THE  DOLPHIN. 

Of  this  verse  the  simplest  and  best   rendering  is  probably  that  of 
Archbishop  Trench — 

"When  the  Judge  His  place  has  ta'en, 
All  things  hid  shall  be  made  plain, 
Nothing  unavenged  remain  ; ' ' 

which  is  to  be  praised  for  its  literal  turning  of  quicquid  latet.%  In  this 
phrase  translators  have  often  fallen  into  an  error  somewhat  like  that 
mentioned  under  the  last  verse.  Quicquid  latet  is  of  course  simply 
all  which  is  hidden  ;  but  it  has  often  been  taken  for  all  sin  which  is 
hidden,  an  idea  which  does  not  come  in  till  the  third  line.  This 
second  line  is  the  really  important  one  of  the  verse ;  as  to  the  others, 
the  great  majority  of  translators  have  used  the  word  Judge ;  one  or  two 
have  contented  themselves  with  suggesting  it  in  some  such  phrase  as 
that  awful  session,  and  one  has  substituted  the  name  of  the  attribute 
Justice;  Father  Ayl  ward  has  adopted  the  unusual  form  Lord  of  Judg- 
ment. Of  these  the  word  Judge,  as  the  commonest,  is  also  the 
best.  lastly,  where  the  third  line  is  literally  turned,  the  favorite 
words  have  usually  been  unavenged,  unrequited  or  unpunished,  of 
which  the  former  seems  preferable  as  less  common  and  yet  intelligible. 
There  is  a  various  reading  incultum,  meaning  simply,  I  suppose, 
neglected  ;  but  it  does  not  appear  to  have  been  much  adopted  by 
translators — though  in  truth  there  are  plenty  of  vague  versions  which 
might  just  as  well  stand  for  one  as  the  other. 

Line  i. — Judge,  48;  sits,  shall  sit,  be  seated,  etc.,  22;  take,  claim, 
ascend,  etc.,  throne,  9;  seat,  8;  chair,  2;  station,  2; 
place,  1  ;  session,  4 :  assize,  1 . 

Line  ii. — If  in  this  line  a  man  should  turn  to  his  algebra  and  calculate 
the  number  of  permutations  and  combinations  of  such  words 
as  hidden,  secret ;  thoughts,  works,  deeds,  feelings,  not  omit- 
ting the  different  forms  of  the  two  first,  such  as  hid,  secret 
as  an  adjective,  secret  as  a  substantive,  secreted,  etc.;  if  a 
man,  I  say,  did  this,  his  total  would  not  very  much  exceed 
the  number  of  different  versions  I  have  found.  And  equally 
numerous  are  the  representations  of  apparebit. 

Line  Hi. — Unavenged,  15  ;  unrevenged,  1  ;  unpunished,  5  ;  unre- 
quited, 2  ;  remain,  8;   escape,  6;   pass,  2. 

!  The  only  objection  is  the  elision  in  "  ta'en."     Anything  forced  for  the  sake  of 
rhyme  is  objectionable. 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  193 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE." 
Stanzas  IV-VL 

IV.  IV. 

Mors  stupebit  et  natura  Death  and  nature  shall  be  amazed 

Cum  resurget  creatura  When  the  creature  shall  rise  again 

Judicanti  responsura.  To  answer  the  Judge. 

Death  and  Nature  are  personified.  Death  shall  be  astounded 
to  find  its  ancient  reign  ended,  its  quiet  thus  disturbed,  the  primal 
curse  at  length  removed,  and  the  type  of  the  Risen  Lord  fol- 
lowed, so  far  at  least,  by  all  the  children  of  men.  "  And  the  sea 
gave  up  the  dead  that  were  in  it ;  and  death  and  hell  gave  up  the 
dead  that  were  in  them :  and  they  were  judged  everyone  accord- 
ing to  their  works"  (Apoc.  20:  13).  Nature  shall  share  the 
amazement  at  witnessing  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  of  St. 
Paul :  "  For  this  corruptible  must  put  on  incorruption,  and  this 
mortal  must  put  on  immortality  "  (I  Cor.  15  :   53). 

Is  the  singer  speaking  mystically  as  well  as  poetically  in  his 
personification  of  Death  and  Nature  ?  To  build  up  his  poem  into 
a  logical  and  chronological  sequence,  he  has  rifled  all  parts  of 
the  Scriptures,  both  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament;  and  just 
at  this  place,  he  seems  to  have  in  mind  the  awful  description  given 
by  St.  John  in  the  Apocalypse. 

The  word  mors  offers  no  difficulty  to  the  translators ;  but 
natura  has  been  variously  rendered.  What  does  it  really  mean 
or  suggest?  It  can  not  easily  mean  the  "fair  Nature"  of  one 
translator,  that  is,  the  external  face  or  appearance  of  the  earth  and 
the  sky. 

Other  translators  understand  it  to  mean  the  "  great  frame  "  of 
the  universe.  The  oath  of  the  Angel  that  "  Time  shall  be  no 
longer"  (Apoc.  10:  6)  is  echoed  by  Father  Caswall's  version  in 
its  rendering  of  natura  by  "  time."  Others,  perhaps  considering 
that  the  poet  meant  some  opposition  between  the  words  mors  and 
natura,  and  doubtless  justifying  their  contention  on  the  ground  of 
the  relation  between  natura  and  nascor,  have  ventured,  as  prettily 
as  daringly,  to  translate  natura  by  "  life."  Thus  Dr.  SchafT  in  one 
of  his  German  versions  : — 


194  THE  DOLPHIN. 

Tod  und  Leben  seh'n  mit  Beben 
Die  Geschopfe  sich  erheben, 
Antwort  vor  Gericht  zu  geben — 

although  in  another  version  he  wanders  farther  afield,  with  the 
picture  of  the  Apocalypse  in  his  mind : 

Erd'  und  Holle  werden  zittern 
In  des  Weltgerichts  Gewittern, 
Die  das  Todtenreich  erschiittern. 

Spurred  on,  doubtless,  by  the  desire  to  avoid  monotony,  Dr. 
Duffield  frequently  omits  the  "  Death  and  Nature  "  entirely,  giving 
a  paraphrastic  version, — his  eighteen  translations  almost  compel- 
ling him  thereto.  Similarly,  W.  W.  Nevin  gives  both  words  in 
six  of  his  nine  renderings,  while  one  has  "  Death  and  Life,"  and 
the  remaining  two  have  "  Nature  "  only  : — 

Nature  reels  in  blanched  surprise  Nature  cowers  with  faint  and  quiver 

When  the  sheeted  dead  arise  When  in  a  weird  spectral  river 

And  falter  to  the  grand  assize.  Death  and  Hell  their  dead  deliver. 

The  Catholic  versions,  which  as  a  rule  stick  with  remarkable 
pertinacity  to  the  text  of  the  Latin  throughout  the  hymn,  attempt- 
ing no  interpretation  and  following  the  tradition  of  literalness 
established  by  the  translators  of  the  Douay  Bible,  seeking  first  of 
all  a  direct  and  simple  rendering,  have  nevertheless  used  some 
freedom  in  translating  this  stanza  of  the  hymn.  Mr.  Warren, 
while  praising  highly  the  qualities  of  simplicity  and  fidelity  ex- 
hibited by  Roman  Catholic  translators  of  the  hymn,  has  quoted 
but  few  illustrations,  comparatively,  in  his  analysis  of  the  several 
stanzas  of  the  hymn.  Partly,  therefore,  in  recognition  of  the  ex- 
cellent versions  of  those  of  "the  household  of  the  Faith,"  and 
partly  in  illustration  of  the  stanza  now  under  consideration,  we 
shall  give  here  a  few  quotations  from  Catholic  translations.  As  a 
rule  our  American  versions  render  mors  and  natura  by  "  death  " 
and  "  nature."  The  first  translation  given  below  is  that  of  Mr. 
Charles  H.  A.  Esling,  whose  many  versions  of  the  Latin  hymns 
have  received  recognition  from  Protestant  as  well  as  from  Catholic 
sources.  His  version  appeared  in  the  Catholic  Record,  a  monthly 
magazine  published  in  Philadelphia.  Nos.  2,  3,  4,  5  and  6  appeared 
in  the  Catholic  World.  The  last  named  probably  first  appeared  in 
the  Sunday  Press,  under  the  pseudonym  of  "  Rev.  John  Bird,  of 
Albany,"  and  afterwards  in  the   Catholic   World  with  the   initials 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE. 


195 


"  C.  W."     Its   author  was  the 
priest  of  undoubted  poetic  gifts 
The  version  afterwards  appeared 
Hymns,  etc.      By  Rev.  C.  A.  W 
rhymic  build,  having  sometimes 
times  no  rhymes  in  the  stanzas. 

I.    C.   H.  A.   ESLING.       1 874. 

Death  and  Nature  see  with  wonder 
The  dead  burst  their  tombs  asunder, 
Answering  those  tones  of  thunder. 

3.    J.  D.   VAN  BUR  EN.       1 88 1. 

Death  in  stupor,  Nature  quaking 
When  the  dead  are  seen  awaking, 
Each  to  summons  answer  making. 

5.  j.  m.  brown.     1884. 
Nature  and  Death  amazed  will  stand 
When  that  innumerable  band 
Shall  rise  to  answer  God's  command. 


Rev.  Clarence  A.  Walworth,  a 
as  well  as  theological  learning, 
in  "  Andiarocte  and  Other  Poems, 
."l  The  version  is  unique  in  its 
three,  sometimes  two,  and  some- 

2.    JOSEPH  J.   MARRIN.       1882. 

All  Nature,  and  e'en  Death  shall  quail 
When,  rising  from  the  grave's  dark  vale, 
Mankind  pleads  at  the  judgment  rail. 

4.    GEORGE  M.   DAVIE.       1 884. 

Death  and  Nature  stand  aghast, 
As  the  Legions  of  the  Past 
Rise  to  meet  their  doom  at  last. 

6.    REV.  C.  A.   WALWORTH. 

Death  shall  stand  aghast,  and  Nature, 
When  from  dust  the  summoned  creature 
Rises  trembling  to  make  answer. 


No.  7,  by  Miss  Emery,  first  appeared  in  the  Boston  Advertiser 
of  March  21,  1887,  and  reappeared  in  the  Sacred  Heart  Review, 
Boston,  November  26,  1904.  No.  8  first  appeared  in  the  Student? 
November,  1890  or  1891,  signed  with  the  single  initial  "  G."  It 
was  written  doubtless  by  the  Rev.  F.  P.  Garesche,  S.J.  It  after- 
wards appeared  in  a  fly-sheet.  No.  9,  by  the  Rev.  Florence  J. 
Sullivan,  S.J.,  written  some  time  after  1895,  similarly  appeared  in 
a  fly-sheet.  No.  10  was  published  in  The  Ecclesiastical  Review, 
December,  1895.  Nos.  11,  12, 13  and  14,  by  the  Rev.  J.  E.  Dunn,  of 
Catonsville,  Md.,  are  still  in  manuscript,  having  been  composed 
the  present  year.  No.  12,  in  trochaic  5s,  was  suggested  by  the 
version  in  iambic  6s  which  appeared  last  month  in  The  Dolphin. 


7.    SUSAN  L.   EMERY.       1 887. 

Death  stands  wondering  and  all  Nature 

At  the  uprising  of  the  creature, 

To  meet  its  awful  Judge  and  Teacher. 


8.    REV.   F.  P.  GARESCHE,  S.J. 
Nature  and  Death,  in  dread  surprise 
Will  shudder,  as  all  men  arise 
To  answer  at  that  dread  assize. 


9.    REV.  F.  J.  SULLIVAN,  S.J. 

Both  Death  and  Nature  stand  aghast, 
As  man  the  creature  wakes  at  last. 
His  Judge  to  answer  for  the  past. 

1  Putnam,  New  York,  1888. 

2  Immaculate  Conception  College,  New  Orleans 


IO.    REV.  H.  F.  FAIRBANKS.       1 895. 

Death  and  Nature  with  surprise 
Shall  behold  the  creature  rise, 
And  in  judgment  make  replies. 


196  THE  DOLPHIA. 

II.    REV.  J.   E.   DUNN.       I9O4.  12.    REV.  J.  E.   DUNN. 

Death  and  Nature  stand  aghast  :  Death  and  Nature,  quake  ! 

Creatures  risen  must  at  last  Creatures  shall  awake 

To  the  Judge  unfold  their  past.  Answer  strict  to  make. 

13.    REV.  J.   E.    DUNN.  1 4.    REV.  J.   E.    DUNN. 

Nature  and  Death,  aghast,  Death  and  Nature  shall  affrighted 

Shall  quail  when  men  at  last  Quail,  when  men  shall  rise,  now  cited 

Rise  to  unfold  their  past.  To  respond,  that  wrong  be  righted. 

All  of  the  quotations  from  versions  by  American  Catholics,  as 
just  given,  stick  closely  to  the  original.  Not  so  the  versions  by 
our  British  brethren.  Father  Caswall,  who,  in  his  Lyra  Catholic  a, 
translated  all  the  hymns  of  the  Roman  Breviary  and  Missal,  trans- 
lates natura  by  "  time."  He  is  followed  by  "  F.  J.  P."  (Mrs. 
Partridge)  in  the  Catholic  Hymnal,  whose  version  has  been  ascribed 
variously  to  Father  Faber,  and  to  the  Rev.  A.  D.  Wackerbarth. 

I.    REV.   EDWARD  CASWALL.       1848.  2.    MRS.  PARTRIDGE  ("  F.   J.   P."),  i860. 

Time  and  death  it  doth  appal,  Death  and  time  in  consternation 

To  see  the  buried  ages  all  Then  shall  stand,  while  all  creation 

Rise  to  answer  at  the  call.  Rises  at  that  dread  citation. 

Charles  Kent,  in  the  Month,  1 874,  retains  the  two  words,  but  in 
nearly  all  else  departs  from  the  original.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Wallace 
(Hymns  of  the  Church,  1874)  similarly  departs  from  the  original 
in  the  second  line. 

3.    CHARLES    KENT.       1 874.  4.    REV.    DR.   WALLACE.       1 874. 

Nature,  death,  aghast,  affrighted,  Death  and  nature  stand  confounded, 

Then  will  view  from  depths  benighted  Seeing  man,  of  clay  compounded, 

Myriad  life  flames  re-ignited.  Rise  to  hear  his  doom  propounded. 

Dr.  Wallace's  "  of  clay  compounded  "  was,  doubtless,  sug- 
gested by  the  necessities  of  rhyme ;  but  the  effect  gained  was  not 
happy,  as  he  forthwith  proceeded  to  rhyme  it  with  "  propounded." 
The  Dominican  Prior  Aylward  left  behind  him  at  his  death  many 
translations  of  Latin  hymns,  and  amongst  them  a  rendering  of 
the  Dies  Irae,  over  which  he  appears  to  have  spent  much  time 
and  effort,  resulting  in  many  tentative  stanzas.  Two  variations  are 
given  here  : 

5.    REV.   J.    D.   AYLWARD.  6.    REV.   J.  D.   AYLWARD. 

Nature  and  death  in  dumb  surprise  Death  and  nature  in  surprise 

Shall  see  the  ancient  dead  arise  Shall  behold  the  dead  arise 

To  stand  before  the  Judge's  eyes.  Summoned  to  that  last  assize. 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  1 97 

Justice  O'Hagan's  translation  (Irish  Monthly,  1874)  is  very  good, 
as  is  also  that  of  the  Rev.  W.  F.  Wingfield  (in  Prayers  for  the  Dead, 
1845  ;  also  in  Shipley's  Annus  Sanctus,  1884). 

7.    J.  O'HAGAN.       1874.  8.    REV.    W.    F.   WINGFIELD.       1845. 

Startled  death  and  nature  sicken  Now  death  and  nature  in  amaze 

Thus  to  see  the  creature  quicken  Behold  the  Lord  his  creatures  raise 

Waiting  judgment  terror-stricken.  To  meet  the  Judge's  awful  gaze. 

The  first  of  the  following  versions  is  that  of  the  Daily  Exercises 
of  the  Devout  Rosarists  (Amsterdam,  1657),  bearing  on  its  title- 
page  the  initials"  A.  C."  and  "T.  V.,"  of  the  Order  of  St.  Ben- 
net.  The  second  is  that  of  The  Great  Sacrifice  of  the  New  Law 
expounded  by  the  Figures  of  the  Old,  by  "  James  Dvmock,  Clergy- 
man, 1687." 

9.    THE    ROSARISTS.       1 657.  IO.     REV.    JAMES    DVMOCK.       1 687. 

Nature  and  death  shall  stand  at  gaze  Death  and  nature  both  shall  quake 

When  creatures  shall  their  bodies  raise  When  mankind  from  death  shall  wake 

And  answer  for  their  sore-spent  days.  Rising  his  accounts  to  make. 

The  first  of  the  following  versions  is  that  printed  anonymously 
in  The  Following  of  Christ,  1694.  The  second  is  the  one  com- 
monly attributed  to  Lord  Roscommon,  but  probably  with  greater 
justice  to  Dryden,  whose  authorship  of  this  version,  as  well  as  of 
versions  of  many  other  Latin  hymns,  Mr.  Orby  Shipley  has  done 
so  much  to  point  out  and  to  prove. 

II.    AN'oX.       1694.  12.    DRYDEN    OR    ROSCOMMON. 

Amazed  will  death  and  nature  be  Nature  and  death  shall  with  surprise 

When  they  shall  every  creature  see  Behold  the  pale  offender  rise 

Intent  to  answer  his  dread  scrutiny.  And  view  the   Judge  with  conscious  eyes. 

The  paraphrastic  translation  of  Canon  Husenbeth  appeared  in 
the  Missal  for  the  Laity,  1831.  It  is  in  sestet  form,  the  third  and 
sixth  lines  rhyming.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  this  particular 
stanza  should  represent  so  poorly  the  occasional  excellence  of  the 
version.  Opposite  to  it  we  shall  place  the  version  of  the  Very 
Rev.  W.  Hilton,  V.  G.,  which  appeared  in  the  Dublin  Review  for 
July,  1883. 

13.    REV.    F.    C.    HUSENBETH,    183I.  14.    VERY    REV.    \V.    HILTON.       1883. 

Nature  and  death  shall  see  arrayed  Death  and  nature  shall  affrighted 

Poor  trembling  man  for  judgment  raised     Rising  see  the  creature  cited 
Leaving  the  dreary  tomb.  And  before  the  Judge  indicted. 


198  THE  DOLPHIN. 

The  version  of  Richard  Dalton  Williams,  in  the  Manual  of  the 
Sisters  of  Charity  (1848),  links  two  stanzas  of  the  Latin  in  a  single 
8-lined  stanza,  the  fourth  and  eighth  lines  rhyming.  The  version 
is  quite  paraphrastic ;  as  also  is  that  of  Crashaw,  in  Steps  to  the 
Temple  (1646),  which  we  place  beside  that  of  Williams. 

15.    K.    D.    WILLIAMS.       1848.  1 6.    RICHARD    CRASHAW.       1646. 

Death  sees  in  mute  surprise  Horror  of  Nature,  Hell,  and  Death  ! 

Ashes  to  doom  arise —  When  a  deep  groan  from  beneath 

Dust  unto  God  replies —  Shall  cry,  "  We  come,  we  come  !"  and  all 

God  in  His  anger.  The  caves  of  night  answer  one  call. 

The  version  of  the  Right  Rev.  John  Maccarthy,  Bishop  of 
Cloy ne,  appeared  in  the  Irish  Ecclesiastical  Record  (July,  1888). 
Beside  it  we  place  that  of  the  Rev.  John  A.  Jackman,  Ord.  Min., 
which  appeared  in  St.  Anthony's  Annals  (Dublin,  November, 
1904). 

17.    BISHOP    MACCARTHY.       1 888.  1 8.    REV.    JOHN   JACKMAN,    O.M.       I9O4. 

Nature  and  death  shall  stand  amazed         Nature  is  stupefied,  and  Death, 

When  they  shall  see  the  dead  upraised      When  creatures,  who  resume  their  breath, 

That  their  past  lives  may  be  appraised.       Answer  to  what  the  wise  Judge  saith. 

We  shall  conclude  our  quotations  from  British  sources  with 
the  fourth  stanza  of  the  version  of  Father  Ignatius  Ryder,  Superior 
of  the  Oratory  at  Birmingham.  The  translation,  for  a  copy  of 
which  we  are  indebted  to  the  Rev.  Matthew  Russell,  S.J.,  editor 
of  the  Irish  Monthly ,  was  reprinted  in  full  in  that  magazine,  August, 
1902,  with  the  editor's  comment, — "  a  very  beautiful  and  original 
version." 

REV.    IGNATIUS    RYDER. 

Death  and  nature  stand  aghast 
At  the  creature  hurrying  past, 
Answering  to  the  Judge  at  last. 

Two  more  illustrations  (but  American  ones)  and  we  shall  have 
finished.  The  first  is  taken  from  the  Ecclesiastical  Review 
(April,  1890);  the  second,  still  in  manuscript,  is  by  Albert  Rey- 
naud,  Counsellor-at-Law,  New  York  City. 

I9.     ECCLES.   REVIEW.       189O.  20.    ALBERT    REYNAUD.       I905. 

Death  and  nature,  awed,  unduly  Death  aghast  and  nature  see 

See  the  creature  rising  newly  Rise  whence  every  grave  may  be 

To  the  Judge  to  answer  truly.  Creation  answering  God's  decree. 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  199 

The  stanzas  quoted  here  from  thirty-five  British  and  American 
Catholic  versions  will  serve  to  illustrate  somewhat  the  activity  of 
Catholics  in  translation  of  the  hymn,  and  the  wide  limits  of  inter- 
pretation some  of  them  have  taken  in  rendering  this  fourth  stanza 
of  the  Dies  Irae. 

v.  v. 

Liber  scriptus  proferetur  The  written  Book  shall  be  brought  forth 

In  quo  totum  continetur  In  which  all  is  contained 

Unde  mundus  judicetur.  Whence  the  world  is  to  be  judged. 

"The  judgment  sat  and  the  books  were  opened"  (Dan.  7:  10). 
"  And  I  saw  the  dead,  great  and  small,  standing  in  the  presence 
of  the  throne,  and  the  books  were  opened ;  and  another  book 
was  opened,  which  is  the  book  of  life;  and  the  dead  were  judged 
by  those  things  which  were  written  in  the  books,  according  to 
their  works"  (Apoc.  20:   12). 

Daniel  sees  in  his  vision  "  books  "  ;  St.  John  also  sees  "  books." 
In  so  far  they  agree  ;  but  St.  John  adds  :  "  And  another  book  was 
opened,  which  is  the  book  of  life."  Wherein  does  the  distinction 
lie  ?  St.  Augustine  understands  by  the  "  books,"  those  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments,  which  contain  all  the  laws  of  God  and 
their  sanctions  stated ;  and  by  the  "  book,"  the  record  of  each  one's 
life,  "  to  show  what  commandments  each  man  has  done  or  omitted 
to  do." 

In  this  sense  have  practically  all  the  translations  understood 
the  liber  scriptus  ;  and  the  unlucky  exegesis  of  Mr.  Hutton  {Spec- 
tator, March  7,  1868),  who  renders  the  phrase  by  "the  written 
Bible,"  has  been  ridiculed  by  other  editors  than  Mr.  Warren. 
The  following  stanza  would  indeed  seem  to  take  the  ground  from 
under  Mr.  Hutton's  feet;  for  it  continues  the  thought  of  the 
bringing  forth  of  the  liber  scriptus  with :  "  When  therefore  the 
Judge  shall  have  been  seated,  whatsoever  is  hidden  shall  be 
revealed,  and  nothing  shall  escape  its  appropriate  punishment." 
There  have  been,  however,  other  interpretations.  St.  Anselm 
understands  by  the  liber  vitae  of  St.  John,  the  life  of  our  Saviour; 
the  Angelic  Doctor  contends 3  for  the  interpretation  "  Book  of  the 
predestined,"  and  of  the  predestined  unto  glory,4  whether  irre- 
vocably by  absolute  predestination  or  merely  through  the  posses- 

3  Summa  TheoL,  I,  q.  24,  art.  1.  4  lb.,  art  2. 


200  THE  DOLPHIN. 

sion  of  sanctifying  grace  (which  is  forfeited  by  mortal  sin)  and 
therefore  not  irrevocably.5  Cornelius  a  Lapide  understands  the 
Apocalypse  here  to  speak  of  absolute  election,  inasmuch  as  at 
the  Judgment  the  record  of  the  soul  is  a  finished  record. 

There  can  be  hardly  a  doubt  that  the  author  of  Dies  Irae  had 
in  mind  the  passage  of  the  Apocalypse  in  writing  liber  scriptus 
and  not  libri  scripti ;  and  it  seems  probable  that  he  had  also  in 
mind  the  interpretation  of  St.  Augustine,  given  above.  Perhaps 
we  may  find  in  this  stanza,  therefore,  another  intimation  that  the 
author  could  scarcely  have  been  a  Dominican,  at  the  time  when 
the  Angelic  Doctor  was  lecturing  on  the  liber  vitae.  St.  Thomas 
dissents  from  the  opinion  of  St.  Augustine  in  the  gentlest  possible 
manner  (as  was  his  custom  when  differing  from  anybody),  and 
finds  a  sense  in  which  that  opinion  can  be  verified.  And  he  indi- 
cates this  sense  very  neatly ;  but  let  us  hear  St.  Augustine  him- 
self.6 By  the  "  books,"  he  says,  "  we  are  to  understand  the  sacred 
books,  old  and  new,  that  out  of  them  it  might  be  shown  what 
commandments  God  had  enjoined ;  and  that  book  of  the  life  of 
each  man  is  to  show  what  commandments  each  man  has  done  or 
omitted  to  do."  A  material  interpretation  of  this  book  would,  he 
continues,  make  it  of  incalculably  ample  dimensions,  for  it  shall 
contain  all  the  thoughts,  words,  actions,  of  all  mankind  for  all  the 
ages, — it  is  the  "  book  of  Life."  He  concludes  that  by  the  "  book  " 
is  meant  a  certain  divine  power  by  virtue  of  which  a  full  record 
of  its  past  is  presented  to  each  soul,  so  that  this  knowledge  may 
excuse  or  accuse ;  and  that  this  divine  power  is  called  a  "  book  " 
because  in  it,  as  in  an  opened  volume,  each  may  read  his  judg- 
ment. 

Hereupon  Sixtus  Senensis,  the  Dominican  who  has  become 
famous — or  notorious — for  his  depreciation  of  the  Dies  Irae  as  an 
"  uncouth  poem,"  remarks  :  "  Thus  St.  Augustine,  whose  view 
seems  to  have  been  in  the  mind  of  the  author  of  that  uncouth 
poem  {inconditi  rhytkmi)  which  the  Church  sings  in  the  sacred 
mysteries  for  the  dead  : 

Liber  scriptus  proferetur 
In  quo  totum  continetur 
Unde  mundus  judicetur. " 

5  lb.,  art.  3.  6  Dc  Civ.  Dei,  xx.    14. 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  201 

To  sneer  at  such  a  hymn  was  a  hardy  thing  for  Sixtus  of  Siena 
to  do ;  and  all  he  succeeded  in  accomplishing  against  it  was  to 
furnish  an  easy  argument  for  its  Franciscan  authorship.  Saints- 
bury  hints,  in  his  Flourishing  of  Romance  (p.  9),  at  more  modern 
critics  of  what  he  styles  "  the  greatest  of  all  hymns,  and  one  of 
the  greatest  of  all  poems,  the  Dies  Irae."  He  says  :  "  There  have 
been  attempts — more  than  one  of  them — to  make  out  that  the 
Dies  Irae  is  no  such  wonderful  thing  after  all ;  attempts  which 
are,  perhaps,  the  extreme  examples  of  that  cheap  and  despicable 
paradox  which  thinks  to  escape  the  charge  of  blind  docility  by 
the  affectation  of  heterodox  independence.  The  judgment  of  the 
greatest  (and  not  always  of  the  most  pious)  men  of  letters  of 
modern  times  may  confirm  those  who  are  uncomfortable  without 
authority  in  a  different  opinion.  Fortunately  there  is  not  likely 
ever  to  be  lack  of  those  who,  authority  or  no  authority,  in  youth 
and  in  age,  after  much  reading  or  without  much,  in  all  time  of 
their  tribulation  and  in  all  time  of  their  wealth,  will  hold  those 
wonderful  triplets,  be  they  Thomas  of  Celano's  or  another's,  as 
nearly  or  quite  the  most  perfect  wedding  of  sound  to  sense  that 
they  know."  A  Roland  for  an  Oliver;  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that 
we  must  thank  a  Sixtus  for  a  Saintsbury. 

Or,  instead  of  Sixtus,  did  Saintsbury  have  in  mind — ("  There 
have  been  attempts — more  than  one  of  them,"  he  says)  —  the 
writer  in  Notes  a?id  Queries  (July  27,  1850),  who,  not  having  the 
courage  of  his  convictions,  contented  himself  with  signing  the 
letter  "  C "  to  his  communication  ?  This  critic's  diatribe  was 
occasioned  by  the  terms  "extremely  beautiful"  and  "magnificent," 
applied  to  the  Dies  Irae  by  some  of  the  correspondents  of 
N.  and  Q.,  against  which  he  desired  to  file  a  protest.  He  thinks 
the  hymn  "  not  deserving  any  such  praise  either  for  its  poetry  or 
its  piety."  He  considers  the  first  stanza  the  best,  though  he  is 
"  not  quite  sure  that  even  the  merit  of  that  be  not  its  jingle,  in 
which  King  David  and  the  Sibyl  are  strangely  enough  brought 
together  to  testify  of  the  day  of  judgment.  Some  of  the  triplets 
appear  to  me,"  he  concludes,  "  very  poor,  and  hardly  above 
macaronic  Latin."  Macaronic  Latin,  quotha !  The  inconditns 
rhythmus  of  Sixtus  of  Siena  was  a  gentle  phrase  in  comparison, 
although  either  might  well  serve  to  account  for  the  evident  indig- 


202  THE  DOLPHIN. 

nation  of  so  great  a  critic  as  Saintsbury.  To  his  sensitive  appre- 
ciation of  the  Dies  Irae,  it  is  possible  that  the  very  praise  of  a 
writer  in  the  British  Quarterly  (xxxviii,  39)  proved  somewhat 
offensive,  inasmuch  as,  while  proclaiming  the  sublimity  of  the 
hymn,  he  couples  with  his  praises  such  expressions  as  "  uncouth 
Latin"  and  "barbarous  Leonine  rhyme."  This  writer  was  speak- 
ing of  "  Psalmody  "  ;  and  having  shown  how  beautiful  certain  of 
the  Ambrosian  hymns  were,  although  not  phrased  in  the  purest 
of  classical  Latin,  he  proceeds  to  consider  the  claim  of  some 
mediaeval  hymns  :  "  But  if  we  have  already  almost  lost  caste,"  he 
says,  "  among  classical  critics  of  the  old  school,  we  fear  that  we 
shall  excite  their  horror  still  more  by  proclaiming  how  highly 
we  admire  the  sublimity,  we  use  no  humbler  term,  of  a  hymn 
composed  in  uncouth  Latin  and  barbarous  Leonine  rhyme.  Spirit 
of  Dr.  Parr,  repose  in  peace !  We,  however,  shelter  ourselves 
behind  the  authority  of  a  writer  whom,  in  point  of  taste,  we  are 
inclined  to  consider  the  representative  of  the  old  school  of  classical 
English  poetry,  that  of  Gray  and  Mason — Mr.  Mathias.  This 
distinguished  scholar,  who,  in  the  decline  of  a  life  devoted  to  the 
most  elegant  literary  pursuits,  is  basking  in  the  delicious  climate 
and  inhaling  the  airs  and  poetry  of  his  beloved  Italy,  has  put  forth 
an  unpretending  tract,  entitled  '  Excerpta  ex  Hymnis  Antiquis,' 
in  which  he  has  anticipated  some  of  our  selections.  The  effect  of 
the  hymn  to  which  we  allude  we  must  give  in  his  own  rich  and 
nervous  Latin."  Mr.  Mathias  speaks  of  having  entered  St.  Peter's 
at  Rome  one  afternoon  and  hearing  the  full  choir  singing  the 
Dies  Irae,  and  of  the  tremendous  effect  upon  his  soul.  He  quotes 
several  stanzas,  which  the  writer  in  the  Quarterly  repeats,  of  the 
Dies  Irae.  "  We  are  sincerely  of  opinion,"  he  continues,  "  that 
the  hymn  will  justify  this  lofty  panegyric.  Most  of  our  readers 
are  familiar  with  Luther's  '  O  God,  what  do  I  see  and  hear,  The 
end  of  things  created ' ;  and  Heber's  Advent  Hymn  is  admirable ; 
but  to  our  taste  the  simplicity  and  homely  strength  of  the  old 
monkish  verse  surpasses  every  hymn  on  a  similar  subject.  It  has 
the  merit  common  to  some  others — it  seems  to  suggest  its  own 
music." 

The  article  in  the   Quarterly  was  probably  written  by  Dean 
Milman.     The  excerpt  we   have   made   shows  how  deeply  the 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  203 

author  was  impressed  by  the  sublimity  of  the  Hymn,  even  if  he 
found  fault  with  its  technical  qualities  considered  as  a  Latin 
poem — technical  qualities  which,  as  we  have  seen,  were  the  very 
things  selected  by  Saintsbury  for  praise.  The  Dean  subsequently 
modified  somewhat  the  harshness  of  his  terminology,  and  in  his 
Latin  Christianity'1  referred  to  the  "  rude  grandeur  "  of  the  hymn, 
which  made  it,  together  with  the  Stabat  Mater  (because  of  the 
"  tenderness  "  of  this  Marian  hymn),  "  stand  unrivalled  "  in  Latin 
hymnody. 

VI.  VI. 

Judex  ergo  cum  sedebit,  When  therefore  the  Judge  shall  be  seated, 

Quidquid  latet  apparebit ;  Whatsoever  lies  hid  shall  be  seen  ; 

Nil  inultum  remanebit.  Nothing  shall  remain  unpunished. 

The  five  stanzas  from  Judex  ergo  to  Non  sit  cassns  arouse  the 
enthusiasm  of  Saintsbury ;  for  in  them  "  not  a  word,"  he  thinks, 
"  could  be  displaced  or  replaced  by  another  without  loss." 

This  stanza,  describing  the  formal  seating  of  the  Judge,  is  the 
second  of  the  three  stanzas  used  by  Goethe  for  his  "  Faust ; "  on 
hearing  it,  Marguerite  is  overwhelmed  with  fear. 

In  a  Manuscript  of  the  twelfth  century  (found  in  Edelestand 
du  Meril  and  Mone),  containing  nearly  four  hundred  lines,  from 
which  two  stanzas  have  already  been  quoted  as  forming  an  intro- 
duction to  the  Dies  Iraef  occurs  a  stanza  which  may  be  quoted 
here  as  suggestive  of  this  strophe,  the  last  line  of  which  is  prac- 
tically identical  with  the  last  line  of  the  quatrain : 

Expavesco  miser  multum 
Judicis  severum  vultum, 
Cui  latebit  nil  occultum, 
Et  manebit  nil  inultum. 

This  sixth  stanza  of  the  Dies  Irae  closes  the  epic  or  narrative 
part  of  the  hymn,  the  remaining  stanzas  being  intensely  lyric  in 
character.  This  will,  therefore,  be  a  fitting  place  to  consider  the 
contention  of  one  of  the  most  recent  translators  of  the  hymn, 
W.  W.  Nevin,9  that,  as  the  hymn  is  redolent  of  the  terminology 
of  mediaeval  jurisprudence,  a  translation  should  seek  to  preserve, 

7  Book  14,  Ch.  IV. 

8  See  Dolphin,  January,  1905. 

9  Dies  Irae.  Nine  Original  English  Versions.  By  W.  W.  Nevin,  M.A.  New 
York  and  London  :  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.      1895. 


204  THE  DOLPHIN. 

as  far  as  may  be,  the  legal  phraseology  of  modern  vernaculars : 
"  It  was  many  years  ago,"  he  writes,  "  while  studying  for  the  law, 
that  my  attention,  in  reading  the  Dies  Irae,  was  arrested  by  the 
remarkable  amount  of  legal  phraseology  used  in  its  brief  lines. 
Witness  as  to  this:  'Teste,'  'Judex,'  'Judicanti  responsura,' 
'  Cuncta  stricte,'  'Judex  cum  sedebit,'  'Quern  patronum,'  'Juste 
Judex,'  '  Diem  rationis,'  '  Culpa/  '  Reus,'  '  Gere  curam,'  '  Reus 
judicandus; '  and  every  verse  is  gloomy  with  the  black  imagery 
and  depressing  atmosphere  of  the  court-room.  It  is  a  picture  of 
a  criminal  trial,  as  criminals  were  tried  in  the  thirteenth  century — 
dismal,  hopeless,  hapless."  He  thinks  it  "  hard  for  any  one,  not 
read  in  the  history  of  criminal  jurisprudence,  adequately  to  con- 
ceive the  terrible  and  hopeless  surroundings  that  environed  the 
unhappy  accused,  put  on  trial  in  mediaeval  times.  .  .  .  The 
prisoner  at  the  bar  stood  alone,  without  friends,  without  rights, 
without  a  cause,  removed  from  human  aid,  and  apparently  from 
human  sympathies.  The  very  charge  seemed  to  take  him  out  of 
this  world,  and  throw  him  on  the  kinder  mercies  of  the  next.  .  .  . 
It  is  hard  for  us  now  to  conceive  of  such  merciless  conditions,  but 
even  in  later  times,  and  under  the  milder  common  law  of  England, 
a  prisoner  on  trial  for  a  capital  crime  was  not  so  much  as  allowed 
counsel.  Indeed,  this  privilege  was  never  fully  attained  until  the 
reign  of  William  IV,  and  then  by  statute."  Accordingly,  following 
this  conception  that  the  poem  is  a  picture  of  a  trial,  Mr.  Nevin 
"  endeavored,  in  translating  it,  wherever  possible,  to  render  the 
Latin  legal  terms  by  the  equivalent  terms  or  formula  in  use  in  our 
land  and  time,  or  as  near  as  can  be,  for  it  is  not  always  easy  to 
find  the  exact  equivalent  in  English,  for  even  Spanish  or  French 
legal  terms  in  use  at  this  very  hour,  and  this  difficulty  increases 
very  greatly  in  going  back  six  hundred  years." 

It  is  needless  to  point  out  that  many  translators  have  used 
legal  phraseology,  and  indeed  could  scarce  avoid  doing  so,  in 
rendering  the  words  which  are  common  both  to  legal  and  to 
ordinary  speech  :  e.g.,  Judge,  judgment,  culprit,  crime,  criminal, 
plea,  plead,  cite,  summon  (and  their  derivatives),  etc.  Some  ver- 
sions, moreover,  have  consciously  borrowed,  and  with  effort,  from 
distinctively  legal  terminology  ;  as  in  the  words  "  assize  "  "  dooms- 
day book,"  "  session,"  "  daysman,"  "  counsel."     Mr.  Nevin's  nine 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAEr  205 

versions  strive  manfully  to  add  to  the  atmosphere  of  the  court- 
room by  such  translations  as  these  : 

Coget  omnes  ante  thronum. 
All  before  the  Bar  compelling  (No.  1.) 
To  the  Judgment  Bar  appalling  (No.  2). 
As  to  the  Bar  all  souls  are  led  (No.  5 ). 
To  the  Bar  the  quick  and  dead  (No.  6. ) 
All  flesh  before  the  Bar  is  found  (No.  7). 
Shall  compel  all  to  the  Bar  (No.  8). 
To  the  judgment  Bar  are  led  (No.  9.) 

Judicanti  responsura  suggests  such  phrases  as  these  :  "  Answer 
at  the  final  hearing,"  "  At  the  summons,"  etc.,  "  Ranged  at  the 
last  assize,"  "to  judgment  come,"  "  To  answer  at  the  bar  of 
doom,"  etc.  Ante  diem  rationis  appears  as  :  "  Ere  the  last  adjudi- 
cation," "  Ere  the  day  of  last  citation,"  "  Ere  the  final  condemna- 
tion," "  Ere  is  closed  the  final  writ,"  "  Ere  the  Day  without 
appeal,"  "  When  comes  the  day  of  last  assize."  Gere  curam 
appears  as  :  "  Take  my  cause  "  (used  thrice),  "  Let  my  last  end  be 
thy  commission."  Hide  ergo  parce,  Deus  appears  as :  "  Spare 
him,  God,  the  undefended,"  "...  the  lone  defendant,""  .  .  . 
in  that  inquest." 

In  his  desire  to  make  his  English  versions  of  the  hymn  a 
counterpart  of  the  legalistic  Latin  of  the  original  as  he  conceives 
it,  Mr.  Nevin  tries  to  have  every  verse,  as  far  as  may  be,  "  gloomy 
with  the  black  imagery  and  despairing  atmosphere  of  the  court- 
room" ;  for,  he  says,  the  hymn  "is  a  picture  of  a  criminal  trial 
as  criminal  trials  were  tried  in  the  thirteenth  century — dismal, 
hopeless,  hapless."  But  has  he  not  ventured  rather  far,  in  trans- 
lating the  "  thronus  "  of  the  Apocalypse  into  "  Bar  "  ?  Has  he 
indeed  caught  the  finest  argument  of  the  hymn  at  all  ?  Has  he 
heightened  the  tragic  feature  of  the  hymn  by  comparing — 
rather  than  contrasting — its  terrors  with  the  criminal  jurisprudence 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  as  he  conceives  that  jurisprudence? 
Did  it  give  an  added  touch  to  any  dramatic  conception  of  the 
Last  Judgment  in  the  minds  of  men  in  the  thirteenth  century  to 
say  of  it,  that  it  should  reproduce,  in  its  "  hopeless,  hapless  "  char- 
acter, the  features  assumed  to  have  characterized  the  jurispru- 
dence of  that  century, — that,  in  short,  it  was  to  be  the  Last  of 
those    earthly  trials    with  which  people  were  familiar,  "  dismal, 


2o6  THE  DOLPHIN. 

hopeless,  hapless  "  ?  Men  get  finally  used  to  "  dismal,  hopeless, 
hapless  "  procedures  ;  and  if  the  Last  Judgment  were  to  be  only 
like  the  innumerable  human  ones  that  had  preceded  it,  much  of  the 
Hymn's  terrific  power  must  have  been  lost  for  the  minds  for  whom  it 
was  written.  But  if  Mr.  Nevin's  view  of  the  old  jurisprudence  is 
much  exaggerated ;  if  trials  were  not  quite  so  dismal,  hopeless, 
and  hapless  as  he  conceives  them  to  have  been  ;  if  it  is  not  true, 
even  of  the  "judicium  Dei,"  that  "everything  proceeded  on  the 
fundamental  assumption  that  the  accused  was  guilty  in  the  eyes 
of  man,  and  was  to  be  cleared  or  saved  only  by  the  special  inter- 
ference of  God," — if,  in  short,  a  contrast  could  be  effected  by  the 
hymn  between  the  gleams  of  hope  that  lit  up  an  orderly  trial  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  and  the  dreadfully  rigorous  scrutiny  (Cuncta 
stride  discussurus\  the  certain  disclosure  of  the  most  hidden 
offences  (Quidqidd  latet  apparebit),  the  inevitable  character  of  the 
punishment  (Nil  inultum  remanebif)  to  be  meted  out  even  to  the 
sliglitest  fault,  the  loneliness  (Quern  patronum  rogaturusf)  of  the 
culprit  and  the  hopelessness  of  his  case  (Quum  vix  Justus  sit 
securus), — if  such  a  contrast  and  opposition,  rather  than  the  com- 
parison and  quasi-identity  conceived  by  Mr.  Nevin,  could  be  set 
up  by  the  hymn,  surely  its  dramatic  horror  would  be  immeasurably 
increased,  while  the  argument  based  on  that  dreadful  disparity  of 
the  human  and  the  divine  judgments  would  be  immeasurably 
strengthened.  And  such  we  believe  to  be  the  fact.  Trials  were 
not  quite  the  dismal  and  hapless  things  pictured  by  Mr.  Nevin 
and  other  commentators  on  the  jurisprudence  of  the  thirteenth 
century.  Walter  Map,  the  courtly  Archdeacon  of  the  time  of 
Henry  II,  "  himself  a  judge,"  although  he  wrote  probably  a  cen- 
tury before  the  composition  of  the  Dies  Irae,  could  see  the  force 
lying  in  the  argument  of  contrast,  when,  singing  of  the  Last 
Judgment,  he  said  : — 

Ibi  nihil  proderit  quidquid  allegare, 
Neque  vel  excipere  neque  replicare, 
Neque  ad  apostolicam  sedem  appellare  ; 
Reus  condemnabitur  nee  dicetur  quare. 

Cogitate,  miseri,  qui  et  qualis  estis, 
Quid  in  hoc  judicio  dicere  potestis 
Ubi  nullus  codicis  locus  aut  digestis — 


COMMENT  OX  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  207 

for,  unlike  the  human  courts  of  law,  the  Last  Judgment  will  not 
permit  defensive  allegation,  noting  of  exceptions,  formal  replies  to 
the  exceptions,  appeals  to  another  venue,  etc. ;  and  there  Christ 
shall  be  accuser,  witness,  and  judge — "  idem  erit  judex,  actor, 
testis." 

It  is  scarcely  logical  to  categorize  under  the  one  heading  of 
the  "  Middle  Ages  "  the  various  centuries  in  which  various  usual 
and  unusual  forms  of  legal  procedure  were  used,  and  to  jumble 
together  under  the  one  title  of  "  Criminal  Jurisprudence  "  such 
various  procedures  as  (1)  Compurgation,  which  flourished  in  Ger- 
many and  other  northern  nations  of  Europe  down  to  the  sixteenth 
century,  and  was  formally  abolished  in  England  only  in  the  year 
of  grace  1833  ;  (2)  Ordeals,  prohibited  by  Innocent  III  (f  1216) ; 
and  (3)  the  Wager  of  Battle,  "  which,  though  even  more  strenu- 
ously opposed  by  the  Church,  did  not  meet  with  the  same  hostility 
from  the  secular  authorities,  and  is  to  be  met  with  occasionally  as 
late  as  the  sixteenth  century,10  and  in  England  was  not  formally 
abolished  until  18 19.  The  "Judgment  of  God"  was  appealed  to 
when  the  question  to  be  settled  transcended  the  wisdom  of  men, 
and  cannot  be  considered  the  normal  method  of  legal  procedure, 
whether  in  mediaeval  or  in  modern  England.  "  But  it  was  in  this 
barbaric,  bloody  and  revengeful  way,"  writes  Mr.  Nevin,  "  that 
these  people  in  the  thirteenth  century  tried  each  other,  and  ex- 
pected God  to  try  themselves."  "  Throughout  the  Middle  Ages," 
says  another  writer,  "  the  theory  of  the  law  placed  the  burden  of 
proof  on  the  negative  side ;  and  it  may  be  counted  a  most  im- 
portant step  in  the  progress  of  European  civilization  when  the 
Germanic  idea  finally  gave  place  to  the  Roman  maxim  that  it  is 
impossible  to  prove  a  negative,  and  that  the  necessity  of  producing 
evidence  lies  with  the  accuser."  ll 

"Throughout  the  Middle  Ages,"  says  the  last-quoted  writer. 
The  phrase  is  at  least  ambiguous  ;  for  we  find  Peter  the  Venerable 
replying  to  the  strictures  of  St.  Bernard  on  the  monks  of  Clugny : 
"  It  would  be  proper  for  you  who  make  these  charges  to  sub- 
stantiate them  by  some  written  authority,  to  which  we  must  yield, 
and  not  let  them  rest  on  your  bare  assertion,  by  which  we  are  not 

10  Trans,  and  Reprints,  etc.,  Vol.  IV,  No.  4. 

11  Trans,  and  Rep.,  Vol.  IV,  No.  4,  p.  2. 


208  THE  DOLPHIN, 

greatly  moved.  For  thus  the  law  requires,  that  he  who  accuses 
any  one  should  prove  his  charge,  since  the  burthen  of  proof  always 
lies  on  the  accuser "  (Maitland's  Dark  Ages,  No.  xxiii).  The 
Latin  text  can  be  found  in  Migne's  Patrol.  Lat.f  Vol.  clxxxix, 
col.  143.  This  letter  of  Peter's  was  written,  not  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  but  in  the  early  part  of  the  twelfth.  It  urges,  as  a  well- 
known  principle  of  the  law,  that  the  bnrde?i  of  proof  rests  always 
with  the  accuser,  "  actori  probatio  semper  incumbit." 

This  idea  of  contrast  rather  than  identity  of  procedure  should, 
we  think,  be  emphasized,  if  we  shall  hope  to  appreciate  at  its  best 
the  terrible  picture  drawn  by  the  grand  Hymn  of  Judgment. . 
Mr.  Nevin's  interpretation  does  not  appeal  to  us  as  a  happy  one ; 
and,  without  presuming  to  compare  our  layman's  knowledge  of 
"the  criminal  jurisprudence  of  the  thirteenth  century"  with  that 
of  a  lawyer  discoursing  on  the  history  of  his  profession,  we  never- 
theless venture  to  think  that  his  statement  of  the  features  of  that 
mediaeval  jurisprudence  is  too  sweeping.  The  reply  of  Peter  the 
Venerable  (a  slight  portion  of  which  we  have  just  reproduced 
above)  to  the  chapter  of  accusations  composed  by  St.  Bernard 
is  a  voice  heard,  not  in  "  the  thirteenth  century,"  but  as  early  as 
the  twelfth ;  and  it  utters,  as  a  matter  of  common  notoriety,  the 
great  principle  that  "  on  the  accuser  rests  the  burden  of  proof." 
But  however  the  matter  be,  the  translation  itself  of  the  hymn  is 
hardly  affected  by  Mr.  Nevin's  interpretation.  He  may  crowd  as 
much  legal  phraseology  as  he  well  can  into  the  English  render- 
ing, without  doing  violence  to  the  sentiment  of  the  picture — which 
is,  after  all,  one  of  a  judgment — drawn  by  the  mediaeval  artist. 
The  only  thing  we  are  now  contending  for  is  the  propriety  of  con- 
trasting, rather  than  of  identifying,  the  dreadful  conditions  of  the 
Last  Assize  with  those  of  any  earthly  tribunal  whatsoever,  ancient, 
mediaeval,  or  modern. 

In  this  sixth  stanza  we  reach  the  conclusion  of  the  descriptive 
part  of  the  hymn.  Within  the  narrow  limits  of  eighteen  lines  the 
mediaeval  singer  has  marvellously  condensed  the  various  Biblical 
allusions  to  the  Last  Judgment,  and  has  constructed  a  picture  as 
majestic  and  overpowering  as  the  great  fresco  of  Michelangelo. 

H.  T.  Henry. 
Over  brook  Seminar)',  Pa. 


THE  DOLPHIN. 


Vol.  VII.  April,   1905.  No.  4- 


suddenly  upon  them  and  in  such  manner  that  it  must  be  solved 
by  the  first  means  which  come  to  hand.  But  in  places  where  the 
former  choir  of  mixed  voices  is  suddenly  disbanded,  and  the  litur- 
gical choir  is  not  yet  ready  for  a  public  appearance,  the  pastors 
would  do  well  to  have  Low  Mass,  or  to  engage  a  temporary 
unison  choir  of  three  or  four  men.  If  a  sanctuary  choir  starts 
upon  its  career  in  a  crude,  unfinished  state,  it  will  lay  up  for  itself 
the  criticism  and  opposition  of  many  years  to  come.  If,  on  the 
contrary,  it  enters  upon  the  performance  of  its  functions  in  a  con- 
dition of  thorough  fitness,  its  success  is  infallibly  ensured. 

The  prudent  pastor,  in  this  regard,  is  he  who,  reading  the 
signs  of  the  times,  and  observing  the  straws  which  indicate  how 
the  wind  blows,  at  once  sets  about  preparing  a  chancel-choir.  If 
he  commences  intelligently  and  permits  himself  a  full  year  for 
preparation,  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  new  liturgical  choir 
will  enter  upon  its  career  in  such  manner  as  abundantly  to  vindi- 
cate its  installation  and  to  win  the  approval  of  all  interested. 

Francis  Joseph  O'Brien. 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 


4o8  THE  DOLPHIN. 

NOTES  ON  THE  ENGLISH  VERSIONS  OF  THE  "DIES  IRAE." 

IN  the  January  and  February  issues  of  The  Dolphin  the  first  six 
stanzas  of  the  Dies  Irae  were  treated  from  the  double  standpoint 
of  their  accurate  version  into  English  metre  and  rhyme,  and  their 
literary  history.  The  eighteen  lines  comprised  in  the  six  stanzas 
sketch  rapidly  but  with  great  vividness  the  picture  of  the  Judg- 
ment. The  remainder  of  the  Hymn,  which  gives  the  "  lyric  cry  " 
of  the  singer  as  he  contemplates  such  a  picture,  is  connected  with 
the  preceding  verses  by  the  seventh  stanza,  which  serves  as  a 
bridge  to  connect  the  descriptive  with  the  lyric  part.  With  this 
seventh  stanza  the  present  paper  deals  first ;  and  the  remaining 
stanzas  will  be  dealt  with  in  this  issue  and  the  following  (May). 
— Editor. 

Stanzas  VII-X. 
By  the  late  C.  F.  S.  Warren,  M.A. 

7.   Quid  sum,  miser,  tunc  dicturus  ? 
Quern  patronum  rogaturus, 
Cum  vix  Justus  sit  securus  ? 

The  verse,  particularly  the  third  line,  is  based  on  the  Vulgate  of 
I   Peter  4  :  18. 

The  Roman  Catholic  versions  are,  as  has  been  said,  often  among 
the  best  \  but  it  is  a  mistake  to  turn  miser  by  wicked,  as  is  done  by  a 
writer  in  the  Catholic  Manual,  New  York,  1870.  The  word  has 
sometimes  of  course  that  sense ;  but  here  it  refers  to  the  defenceless 
state  of  a  soul  at  the  Great  Judgment — defenceless  in  all  external 
ways  ;  his  own  good  deeds  must  be  his  defence.    The  version  is  this :  — 

"  What  plea  shall  wicked!  pretend, 
What  patron  move  to  stand  my  friend, 
When  scarce  the  just  themselves  defend?" 

In  other  respects  it  is  good,  in  the  second  line  especially ;  but  as 
regards  the  turning  of  miser  some  one  such  as  this  is  better :  — 

"  What  shall  wretched  I  then  plead, 
Who  for  me  shall  intercede 
When  the  righteous  scarce  is  freed  ?' ' 

Isaac  Williams. 


NOTES  ON  THE  UDIES  IRAE."  409 

The  words,  however,  intercede  or  mediate  can  hardly,  I  think,  be 
considered  right ;  in  patronus  there  is  a  legal  metaphor  which  by 
many  translators  is  hardly  enough  brought  out.  The  patronus  is  the 
advocate,  the  counsel ;  and  to  substitute,  as  Isaac  Williams,  Dr.  Irons, 
and  others,  have  so  often  done,  the  idea  of  intercession  or  mediation 
is  to  alter  the  verse  altogether.  Mediation  is  the  intervention  between 
two  parties  of  one  who  has  somewhat  in  common  with  both  ;  to 
intercede  is  to  set  before  the  Judge  on  the  culprit's  behalf  either 
one's  own  merits,  as  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  does  in  heaven,  or  those 
of  another  as  a  Christian  priest  does  Christ's  on  earth.  This  inter- 
cession we  have  in  the  tenth  verse  :  the  idea  in  this  is  properly  of  a 
counsel  only ;  and  the  despairing  soul  who  puts  the  question  sees  at 
once  that  no  "  counsel  "  can  be  had,  that  more  than  a  "  counsel  "  is 
wanted,  and  so  turns  to  Christ  as  the  Intercessor  in  the  ninth  and 
tenth  verses.  Thus  it  seems  that  to  turn  the  patronus  into  an  inter- 
cessor is  to  interfere  with  the  due  order  of  the  Hymn.  Of  those  who 
have  not  done  this,  many  have  as  usual  contented  themselves  with 
vague  generalities,  of  which  the  most  that  can  be  said  is  that  they  do 
not  exclude  the  true  idea. 

Of  the  few  who  have  categorically  expressed  the  correct  idea, 
Drummond  of  Hawthornden  and  two  or  three  more  have  used  the 
word  advocate  ;  others  have  retained  the  original  word  in  its  English 
form  :  this  is  not  perhaps  to  be  recommended,  though  it  may  be  done. 
Possibly  some  way  might  be  found  of  employing  the  word  counsel  in 
its  technical  sense ;  this  1  have  never  seen  done,  for  the  following 
curious  line  of  course  does  not  employ  it  so  :  — 

"What  shall  be  my  pleading  tearful, 
Where  shall  I  get  counsel  cheerful, 
When  the  just  almost  are  fearful?" 

— Wallace,  Hymns  of  the  [R.  C]   Church. 

If  it  could  be  done,  it  must  be  done  very  carefully  :  for  after  all  the 
' '  counsel  "  is  to  be  such  a  *  <  counsel  ' '  whose  office  shall  so  to  say 
merge  into  intercession  ;  he  shall  be  in  short  The  Intercessor  Himself; 
and  in  this  light  the  best  word  of  all,  if  it  were  not  so  unusual  a  one, 
might  possibly  be  daysman,  actually  employed  by  one  American. 

The  third  line  need  not  detain  us  except  to  mention  the  occasional 
use  of  the  word  saints  instead  of  the  more  common  just  or  righteous. 


410  THE  DOLPHIN. 

Line  i. — Wretch  or  wretched,  36  ;  sinner,  4  ;  guilty,  3  ;  frail  man, 
2  ;  wicked,  1  ;  unworthy,  1 .  Plead  or  plea,  40  ;  say, 
14;  answer,  5  ;  reply,  2. 
Line  ii. — Intercede,  etc.,  24;  patron,  14  (-saint,  1)  ;  guardian,  1 
(-creature,  1) ;  advocate,  7  ;  defend  or  defender,  6 ; 
friend,  4 ;  protector,  protection,  3  ;  mediate,  mediation, 
2  ;  mediator,  saviour,  daysman. 
Line  Hi. — Just,  52;  righteous,  18;  saint  or  saints,  6;  good,  godly, 
faithful,  holiest.  Of  sit  securus  the  turnings  are  very 
various. 

8.  Rex  tremendae  majestatis, 
Qui  salvandos  salvas  gratis, 
Salva  me,  fons  pietatis. 

How  many  both  in  reality  and  fiction  has  this  verse  consoled  !  Some 
may  remember  two  very  different  tales:  Mr.  Neale's  repentant  knight 
transfixed  by  the  Saracens  in  the  "  Stories  of  the  Crusades,"  whose 
prayer  is  rewarded  by  the  armed  Prior  from  the  sally  absolving  him  at 
the  last  moment  \  and  Meinhold's  poor  "  Amber  Witch  "  racked  for 
her  supposed  sorcery. 

The  objections  to  translating  the  first  line  of  this  verse  by  King  of 
majesty  tremendous  have  been  already  stated,  neither  need  be  repeated  : 
that  translation  has  probably  arisen  simply  from  the  need  for  a  double 
rhyme  (though  there  are  some  few  instances  of  King  of  tremendous 
majesty  as  an  iambic  line),  for  it  is  of  older  date  than  the  present 
crowd  of  versions  of  Latin  hymns,  and  therefore  than  the  fashion  to 
which  Neale  was  so  much  attached  of  using  original  Latin  words  in 
their  English  form.  Of  this  I  know  but  one  thoroughly  successful 
instance — 

"  They  stand,  those  halls  of  Syon, 
Conjubilant  with  song  " — 

has  so  succeeded  ;  conjubilant  is  a  fine  word  and  expressive,  and  un- 
less H.  A.  M.  (for  which  there  was  hardly  a  necessity)  had  altered  it 
into  all  jubilant,  would  probably  by  this  time  have  gone  near  to  take 
its  place  in  the  language;  but  trucidation  (already  quoted),  and 
cunctipotent,  and  praitergrcssing,  and  others  like  them,  are  too  pedantic 
to  be  of  much  value.  They  supply  no  real  want,  and  only  remind 
one  of  the  Latinisms  of  some  early  pedantic  writers. 

The  second  line  is  perhaps  the  hardest  line  in  the  whole  Hymn  to 
turn  well  ;  indeed  the  difficulty  of  this  verse  and  the  two  next  is  so 


NOTES  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  411 

great  that  very  few  writers  indeed  can  be  said  to  have  succeeded.  The 
meaning  of  salvandos  is  this, — those  who,  Almighty  God  sees  in  His 
infinite  foreknowledge,  will  endure  unto  the  end,  for  those  are  they 
who  shall  be  saved,  and  they  are  saved  gratis,  according  to  His  mercy 
and  not  by  works  of  righteousness  which  they  have  done.  And  the 
difficulty  is  to  express  this  in  English  without  falling  into  Calvinistic 
views  of  predestination  on  the  one  hand,  or  watering  the  words  down 
into  nothing  on  the  other.  The  coexistence  of  God's  purposes  and 
man's  free-will  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  problems  in  theology  ;  and 
albeit  this  is  not  the  place  to  attempt  to  discuss  such  a  problem,  we 
must  remember  its  existence  ;  for  the  remembrance,  if  it  do  not  show 
us  how  to  translate  the  verse,  will  at  least  show  us  how  we  must  not. 
And  most  writers,  in  fact,  appear  to  have  been  content  with  the  lat- 
ter knowledge  without  trying  to  acquire  the  former  ;  for  out  of  my 
two  hundred  versions  (in  round  numbers)  there  is  but  a  very  small 
proportion  in  which  it  has  been  attempted  to  translate  salvandos. 
One,  Dr.  Kynaston,  has  left  out  the  whole  verse ;  his  version,  how- 
ever, is  but  a  fragment  ;  some  have  left  out  the  word,  as  Isaac 
Williams — 

"  King  of  dreadful  majesty, 
Saving  souls  in  mercy  free, 
Fount  of  pity,  save  Thou  me  ;" 

many  have  taken  it  as  if  it  were  equal  to  salvatos.  In  two  American 
versions,  and  in  Mr.  D.  T.  Morgan's,  we  have  the  word  elect ;  chosen  is 
also  found.  Mr.  Hoskyns-Abrahall  has  boldly  used  the  technical 
word  predestined,  wherein  he  was  followed  by  the  ten-syllable  version 
of  the  Sacred  Heart,  1880  ;  and  other  expressions  are  saints,  which 
has  the  same  indecision  as  Drummond's  word:  heirs  of  grace ;  and 
the  very  literal  one,  those  who  saved  shall  be}  I  should  consider  that 
the  choice  lay  between  the  last  two  versions  of  salvandos ;  and  of 
these — slightly  cumbrous  as  it  is — I  should  prefer  the  latter,  since 
even  in  heirs  of  grace  there  may  be  thought  a  little  uncertainty.  For 
the  translation  of  gratis  the  best  word  is  probably  the  simple  freely, 
though  gratis  itself  is  used  in  the  "  Thomas  a  Kempis  "  version,  1694, 
and  later  also  in  the  Catholic  Choralist,  1842,  and  in  the 
Lamp,  1859  ;  while  the  phrase  in  Mr.  Simms'  version  is  Wliose 
free  salvation  none  can  buy.  Without  fee  has  also  been  used,  but  does 
not  commend  itself. 

1  "  Those  who  saved  would 'be,"  once  or  twice  found,  is  of  course  wrong. 


412  THE  DOLPHIN. 

In  the  third  line  there  are  a  few  cases  of  the  use  of  the  woxdpiety, 
but  it  is  an  objectionable  use  ;  for  this  word  now  represents  only  our 
love  toward  God  and  the  fruit  of  that  love,  and  can  hardly  be  used 
of  God's  love  and  compassion  toward  us,  which  is  the  meaning  of  the 
original.  The  shorter  form  of  the  word,  pity,  is  very  common,  and 
between  this,  love,  and  mercy,  all  which  are  found,  there  hardly  seems 
to  be  much  choice.  Kindness  has  been  occasionally  adopted,  but 
seems  to  produce  the  same  sense  of  something  wanting  which  one 
gets  from  Tate  and  Brady's  51st  Psalm — 

"  Have  mercy,  Lord,  on  me, 
As  Thou  wert  ever  kind. ' ' 

The  inexorable  necessities  of  rhyme  have  driven  Dr.   Stryker  to  the 

unusual  phrase  Mercy-Laver,  a  synonym  for  fount,  commoner  in  old 

Puritan  language  than  now. 

Line  i. — King,  69;  sovereign,  3;  monarch,  potentate,  saviour; 
majesty,  33 ;  splendor,  5  j  glory,  4  ;  exaltation,  3  ; 
dread,  awe,  might,  awful,  18;  tremendous,  13;  dreadful, 
11  j  dread  (adj.),  3;  dreaded,  1  ;  majestic,  6;  supreme, 
2  ;  supernal,  2  ;  fearful,  severe,  glorious,  wondrous,  divine, 
resplendent. 

Line  ii. — The  saved,  4;  elect,  4;  saints,  2;  thine,  2;  those  who 
saved  shall  be,  2  ;  chosen,  3  ;  free  or  freely,  39. 

Line  Hi. — Fount,  45  ;  fountain,  4  ;  font,  2  ;  source,  5  ;  spring,  3  ; 
head,  1  ;  pity,  19  ;  piety,  4  ;  love,  10  ;  mercy,  8  ;  salva- 
tion, 4  ;  blessing,  3  ;  blessedness,  1  ;  bliss,  1 ;  compassion, 
2  ;  kindness,  goodness,  consolation,  clemency,  healing. 

9.  Recordare,  Jesu  pie, 

Quod  sum  causa  Tuae  viae  : 
Ne  me  perdas  ilia  die. 

' '  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin, ' '  like  many  other  books  which  had  an  enor- 
mous circulation  at  their  first  publishing,  is  now  comparatively  little 
read  ;  but  some  will  still  remember  how  the  dying  St.  Clare  murmurs 
these  words,  and  how  the  authoress  in  a  note  quotes  one  of  Dr.  Coles' 
versions,  and  says,  ' '  These  lines  have  been  thus  rather  inadequately 
translated."1     Rather  or  very  inadequate  indeed  are  many  versions 

*  The  version  quoted  is  the  first,  and  must  therefore  have  been  quoted  from  its 
publication  in  the  Newark  Advertiser  in  1847.  "  Uncle  Tom  "  first  appeared  I  think 
in  1852. 


NOTES  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  413 

besides  the  American  physician's  ;  the  first  difficulty  is  to  find  a  good 
word  for  pie,  since  it  is  now  hardly  possible  to  use  ' '  pious  ' '  with  the 
Rosarists.  The  idea  is  of  course  carried  on  from  the  fons  pietatis  of 
the  last  verse,  and  is  therefore  literally  pitiful,  compassionate ;  but  it 
has  always  been  rendered  by  epithets  somewhat  more  general  than 
these,  and  it  would  indeed  be  difficult  to  find  a  literal  and  admissible 
translation.  Of  those  which  actually  have  been  used,  good  is  perhaps 
the  best  and  most  susceptible  of  the  required  notion  ;  kind,  sweet, 
gentle,  are  all  unsatisfactory,  all  have  about  them  an  irreverent 
familiarity  unless  used  with  the  utmost  care  ;3  and  perhaps  it  would 
be  on  the  whole  better  to  omit  any  epithet  for  which  there  is  no  real 
need.  Such  as  blest  and  holy  of  course  introduce  a  new  idea,  and 
are  objectionable  on  that  account.  Nor  should  such  boldness  be 
allowed  as  that  of  Mr.  Brownell,  1847,  w^o  replaces  the  petition 
Recordare,  Jesu  pie  by  the  assurance  Jesu,  Thou  hast  not  forgot. 

In  the  second  line  a  new  meaning  has  been  suggested  for  the  via 
by  one  of  the  latest  American  translators,  Dr.  Franklin  Johnson, 
1884.  "Toa  Romanist,"  he  says,  "  the  signification  is  clear.  He 
has  heard  much  of  the  via  dolorosa  through  which  our  Saviour  bore 
His  cross.  ...  To  the  Romanist  the  way  of  Christ  is  a  concep- 
tion as  definite  as  is  His  cup  to  the  Protestant.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
Thomas  de  Celano  was  thinking  of  the  via  dolorosa  when  he  wrote  the 
Hymn,  and  that  he  considered  it  a  symbol  of  all  the  sufferings  which 
the  Son  of  God  endured."  It  is  a  pleasing  theory,  but  far-fetched, 
and  requires  proof  which  it  has  not  got  :  there  is,  for  instance,  no 
proof  that  the  phrase  via  dolorosa  was  in  use  so  early,  and  Farrar 
indeed  says  ("Life  of  Christ,"  p.  691,  note,  ed.  Cassell),  "the  so- 
called  Via  dolorosa  does  not  seem  to  be  mentioned  earlier  than  the 
fourteenth  century."  It  will  be  better  to  retain  the  older  meaning; 
though  even  in  the  application  of  this  there  has  been  some  uncer- 
tainty ;  for  the  via  is  not  our  Lord's  way  to  earth  or  from  earth,  but 
upon  earth,  and  further  still,  the  whole  of  that  way  ;  not  His  Incarn- 
ation or  Crucifixion  exclusively,  but  His  whole  course 

"  From  the  poor  manger  to  the  bitter  cross." 

3  "God  infinitely  condescends,  man  must  not  infinitely  presume,"  are  the  words 
of  solemn  warning  used  on  this  subject  in  some  Notes  on  the  Appendix  to  H.A.M. 
in  the  Literary  Churchman  for  December  12,  1868.  A  reply  to  this  was  written  by 
the  late  Dr.  Dykes,  which  was  again  rejoined  to  in  February  and  March,  1869,  by 
three  most  valuable  papers  "  On  Hymns."  To  these  it  would  have  been  well  if 
more  attention  had  been  paid  by  subsequent  hymnologists. 


41 6  THE  DOLPHIN. 

omitted,  and  that  what  is  referred  to  in   crucem  passus  is  the  actual 
crucifixion,  as  is  plainly  shown  by  redemisti. 

The  great  beauty  of  Lord    Macaulay's  paraphrase  must  not  be 
omitted :  — 

"  Though  I  plead  not  at  Thy  throne 

Aught  that  I  for  Thee  have  done, 

Do  not  Thou  unmindful  be 

Of  what  Thou  hast  borne  for  me, 

Of  the  wandering,  of  the  scorn, 

Of  the  scourge  and  of  the  thorn. 

Jesus,  hast  Thou  borne  the  pain, 

And  hath  all  been  borne  in  vain  ?' ' 

The  ' '  Bona  Mors  ' '  paraphrase  represents  part  of  this  verse  by  a 
triplet  with  a  very  curious  expression  : — 

"  In  such  dire  anguish  and  distressful  pain 

Angels  did  weep  and  heart-broke  rocks  complain  ; 
Thy  labors  were  immense,  O  let  them  not  be  vain. ' ' 

Line  i. — Derivatives  of  to  seek,  51  ;  of  to  sit,  12  ;  faint,  5  ;  tired, 

2  ;  dreary. 
Line  ii. — Cross,  43  ;  tree,  8. 
Line  Hi. — Toil,    12;     labor,    9;    pain,  5;  passion,  5  ;  suffering,    4; 

anguish,    3  ;    agony,  2  ;    travail,    2  ;  pangs,    2  ;  vain,  23  ; 

fruitless,  7  ;  wasted,  4  ;  lost,  3 ;  defeated,  2  ;  crossed,  1 . 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE." 
Stanzas  VII-X. 

VII.  VII. 

Quid  sum  miser  tunc  dicturus,        What  shall  I,  wretched,  then  say, 

Quem  patronum  rogaturus,  What  patron  (counsel  ?)  shall  I  entreat, 

Cum  vix  Justus  sit  securus?  When  scarce  the  just  shall  be  without  anxiety? 

Is  the  poet  borrowing  the  word  patronus  from  ascetical  or 
liturgical  phraseology,  or  from  that  of  the  old  Roman  Law  ? 
Mr.  Warren  strongly  contends  for  the  legal  rather  than  the 
ascetical  metaphor,  for  "  advocate "  or  "  counsel "  rather  than 
"  intercessor."  If  Mr.  Nevin's  assertion  be  correct,  that  in  the 
criminal  jurisprudence  of  the  Middle  Ages  "the  prisoner  was  not 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  417 

allowed  to  have  counsel,"  l  and  that  the  Hymn  but  presents  a 
replica  of  the  picture  of  a  trial  in  those  ages,  when  "  the  prisoner 
at  the  bar  stood  alone,  without  friends,  without  rights,  without  a 
cause,"  we  shall  be  forced  to  interpret  patronus  as  "  intercessor," 
or  "  patron  saint,"  or  some  such  equivalent  word  or  phrase.  And 
indeed  the  context  of  the  last  two  lines  of  the  stanza  would  of 
itself  support  such  a  view;  for  we  can  understand  the  poet  as 
saying :  "  When  the  saints  themselves  are  not  without  anxiety, 
which  one  of  them  shall  act  as  intercessor  for  me?  "  The  real 
context  of  thought  may,  on  the  other  hand,  lie  in  the  first  and 
third  line  :  "  What  counsel  will  take  up  the  cause  of  a  wretched 
sinner  like  myself,  at  a  time  when  even  holy  souls  are  not  with- 
out fear  ?  " 

Perhaps  the  poet  had  neither  view  exclusively  in  mind,  and 
thought  of  the  patronus  as  he  was  in  the  ordinary  relations  of  life 
as  much  as  in  his  relation  of  counsel  or  pleader  for  his  client  in 
the  courts  of  Roman  law;  and  the  word  "patron,"  as  vaguely 
implying  all  of  these  relations  even  in  English,  may  be  the  best 
word  to  use  in  translation.  The  real  difficulty  encountered  by 
the  translator  scarcely  lies,  however,  in  the  English  rendering  of 
the  Latin  patronus,  so  much  as  in  the  insistent  temptation,  sug- 
gested by  the  needs  and,  in  this  case,  by  the  facilities,  of  rhyme, 
to  use  "  intercede  "  in  the  second  line  (rhyming  so  beautifully — 
almost  "  inevitably  " — with  "  plead  "  in  the  first  and  with  "  freed  " 
or  "  need  "  in  the  third). 

Mohnike  favors  nee  instead  of  vix  in  the  last  line.  Nee  is  the 
reading  of  the  Mantuan  and  the  Haemmerlin  text.  The  meaning 
would  be  slightly  altered  by  nee,  and  not  for  the  better;  for  while 
there  is  an  apparent  strengthening  of  the  argument,  the  strength 
is  only  apparent  and  not  real,  as  the  argument  is  not  meant  to  be 
mathematical  but  rhetorical.  To  say  that  "  the  just  shall  not  be 
without  anxiety  "  on  that  day  is  not  in  reality  as  strong  a  con- 
tention as  to  say  that  "  even  the  just  shall  scarce  be  without 
anxiety."  Mohnike,  however,  thinks  the  poet  but  reflected  the 
thought  in  Job  (4 :  18):  "  Behold  they  that  serve  him  are  not 
steadfast,  and  in  his  angels  he  found  wickedness " ;  and  again 
{lb.  15:  15):  "Behold  among  his  saints  none  is  unchangeable, 
and  the  heavens  are  not  pure  in  his  sight."     Daniel  rejects  the 

1  See  Preface  to  his  little  volume,  p.  5. 


41 8  THE  DOLPHIN. 

reading  nee  and  the  arguments  supporting  it,  and  thinks  we  have 
only  another  illustration  of  the  necessity  under  which  a  Latin 
hymnologist  lies  of  becoming  familiar  with  the  Vulgate ;  for 
the  line, 

Cum  vix  Justus  sit  securus, 

is  merely  an  echo  of  St.  Peter's  First  Epistle  (4:  18) :  "  Etsi  Justus 
quidem  vix  salvabitur,  impius  et  peccator  ubi  comparebunt  ? " 
("And  if  the  just  man  shall  scarcely  be  saved,  where  shall  the 
ungodly  and  the  sinner  appear  ?  ")  St.  Anselm  repeats  the  word  : 
"A  dextris  erunt  peccata  accusantia,  a  sinistris  infinita  daemonia, 
subtus  horrendum  chaos  inferni,  desuper  judex  iratus,  foris  mun- 
dus  ardens,  intus  conscientia  urens.  Ibi  vix  Justus  salvabitur. 
Heu  miser  peccator  sic  deprehensus  quo  fugies  ?  latere  enim  est 
impossibile,  apparere  intolerable."  ("At  your  right  hand  there 
shall  be  your  accusing  sins,  at  the  left  an  infinite  legion  of  demons, 
beneath  your  feet  the  frightful  chaos  of  hell,  in  front  of  you  the 
angry  Judge,  without  you  a  world  in  flames,  within  you  a  con- 
science that  burns.  Then  shall  the  just  man  scarcely  be  saved. 
Ah,  miserable  sinner  thus  surrounded,  whither  will  you  flee  ?  for 
to  lie  hid  is  impossible,  and  to  appear  is  intolerable.") 

This  stanza  is  the  last  of  the  three  quoted  by  Goethe  in  Faust. 
In  expression,  it  is  marvellously  condensed ;  in  emotional  qual- 
ity, dramatic  to  the  highest  degree  ;  poetically,  it  is  one  of  the  five 
flawless  stanzas  referred  to  by  Saintsbury.  In  the  Hymn,  it  is  the 
bridge  separating,  or  rather  uniting,  the  epic  and  the  lyric  stanzas ; 
for  the  first  six  stanzas  describe  the  scene,  while  the  remaining 
stanzas  are  wholly  given  up  to  the  anguish  of  one  of  the  multi- 
tude there  present  in  spirit, — his  cry  of  utter  loneliness  and  friend- 
lessness,  his  realization  of  the  tremendous  issues  at  stake,  his 
appeal  to  the  pity  of  that  Christ  who  had  sought  for  him  with 
weary  feet,  who  had  borne  for  him  the  heavy  weight  of  the  Cross, 
who  had  suffered  and  died  upon  that  Cross  for  the  very  culprit 
that  now,  in  anticipation  of  that  Day  of  Judgment,  pleads  before 
Him.  This  stanza  begins  the  litany  of  supplication  which  has 
seemed  like  the  universal  "  Cry  of  the  Human  "  to  its  Judge  and 
Saviour;  and  in  the  great  "  Book  of  Life  "  that  shall  be  displayed 
at  the  Judgment,  doubtless  will  be  recorded  the  history  of  many 
a  conversion  to  justice  through  the  instrumentality  of  this  very 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  419 

picture  of  the  "  Day  of  Wrath."  Occasionally  we  get  glimpses  of 
this  power  in  the  lives  of  men.  Lockhart  records  of  Sir  Walter 
Scott,  whose  fragment  of  the  Hymn  leaves  the  regret  that  he  did 
not  complete  a  full  rendering,  that  upon  his  death-bed  he  "  very 
often  "  muttered  verses  of  the  Dies  Irae :  "  Whatever  we  could 
follow  him  in  was  some  fragment  of  the  Bible,  or  some  petition  of 
the  Litany,  or  a  verse  of  some  psalm  in  the  old  Scotch  metrical 
version,  or  some  of  the  magnificent  hymns  of  the  Romish  {sic) 
ritual.  We  very  often  heard  distinctly  the  cadences  of  the  Dies 
Irae!' 

So,  too,  St.  Alphonsus  refers  in  his  Preparation  for  Death1  to 
the  incident  in  the  life  of  the  Venerable  Ancina  (the  Oratorian 
who  as  Bishop  of  Saluzzo  died  in  the  odor  of  sanctity)  which 
proved  the  means  of  a  complete  change  of  calling  for  him. 
"  Hearing  the  Dies  Irae  sung,"  says  St.  Alphonsus,  "  and  reflect- 
ing on  the  terror  of  the  soul  when  she  shall  be  presented  before 
the  tribunal  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Venerable  P.  Juvenal  Ancina  took, 
and  afterwards  executed  the  resolution  of  forsaking  the  world." 
The  incident  is  narrated  more  fully  in  Bacci's  Life  of  the  Venerable 
Servant  of  God  (Rome,  1671).  Ancina  had  studied  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Turin,  had  taken  with  distinction  his  degrees  of  Doctor 
of  Philosophy  and  Doctor  of  Medicine,  and  had  been  practising 
his  profession  with  great  success  before  this  vivid  realization  of 
the  Judgment  Day  so  touched  his  heart  as  to  cause  him  to  dedi- 
cate his  whole  energies  to  the  more  perfect  calling  of  the  religious 
life.  The  true  turning-points  of  life  are  not  often  recognized  as 
such,  and  are  less  often  chronicled  by  biographers.  The  literary 
history  of  the  Hymn  is  very  incomplete ;  but  we  may  well  conjec- 
ture that  if  it  were  written  the  record  would  be  a  marvellous  one. 

The  power  of  the  Hymn  over  the  hearts  of  our  separated 
brethren  is  evidenced,  not  alone  in  the  large  number  of  recorded 
versions   made  into  German3  and  English,  but  by  the   formal 

2  Consideration  xxiv,  First  Point. 

8  The  first  recorded  version  into  German  was  that  of  Martin  von  Cochem,  1613. 
Like  the  earlier  English  versions,  it  is  not  in  the  metre  of  the  original  Latin  : 
{Catholic  Hymn  Book,  Munich,  i6ij.) 
An  jenem  Tag,  nach  David's  Sag, 

Soil  Gottes  Zorn  erbrinnen  : 
Durch  Feuer's  Flamm,  muss  allesamm 
Gleichwie  das  Wachs  zerrinnen. 


420  THE  DOLPHIN. 

estimates  given  of  its  power  and  the  literary  uses  made  of  it. 
"  Frederick  von  Meyer,  a  Senator  of  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  and 
author  of  a  revision  of  Luther's  German  Bible,  in  introducing 
two  original  translations  of  the  Dies  Irae,  calls  it  '  an  awful 
poem,  poor  in  imagery,  all  feeling.  Like  a  hammer  it  beats  the 
human  breast  with  three  mysterious  rhyme-strokes.  With  the 
unfeeling  person  who  can  read  it  without  terror,  or  hear  it  without 
awe,  I  would  not  live  under  one  roof.  I  wish  it  could  be  sounded 
into  the  ears  of  the  impenitent  and  hypocrites  every  Ash  Wednes- 
day, or  Good  Friday,  or  any  other  day  of  humiliation  and  prayer 
in  all  the  churches.'  " 4  SchafT  also  quotes  from  Victor  Cousin,  the 
celebrated  French  philosopher:  "The  Dies  Irae,  recited  only, 
produces  the  most  terrible  effect.  In  those  fearful  words,  every 
blow  tells,  so  to  speak  ;  each  word  contains  a  distinct  sentiment, 
an  idea  at  once  profound  and  determinate.  The  intellect  advances 
at  each  step,  and  the  heart  rushes  on  in  its  turn." 5  Goethe's 
introduction  of  a  few  lines  of  the  Hymn  into  Faust,  and  Sir  Walter 
Scott's  fragment  in  the  Lay  are  sufficiently  famous.  The  hymn 
seems  to  have  impressed  Scott  very  much.  "  Tantus  labor  non 
sit  cassus,"  he  quotes  in  a  letter  to  Bunsen,  in  reference  to  the 

The  earliest  translation  in  the  original  metre  appears  to  be  that  of  Andraeas 
Gryphius,  1659  : 

Zorntag  !  Tag,  der,  was  wir  ehren, 
Wird  durch  schnelle  Glut  zerstoren, 
Wie  Sibyll  und  Petrus  lehren. 

Schaff  (who,  in  his  Literature  and  Poetry,  pp.  1 73-182,  gives  nearly  fifty 
illustrative  quotations  from  as  many  versions  into  German,  and  adds  two  from  his 
own  pen)  declares  that  the  best  among  the  German  versions  are  those  of  Schlegel, 
Silbert,  Bunsen,  Knapp  and  Daniel.  "  But  none  of  them  has  become  so  popular  as 
the  free  reproduction  in  the  old  German  hymn,  '  Es  ist  gewisslich  an  der  Zeit, '  by 
Bartholomaeus  Ringwaldt,  1582."  The  activity  thus  early  begun  received  great 
stimulus,  in  Germany  as  in  England,  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
Mohnike  publishing  (1824)  specimens  of  24  versions,  while  eight  years  later  he  was 
able  to  add  21  more  to  his  list.  In  1840  Lisco,  in  his  monograph  on  the  Dies  Irae, 
gave  54  complete  versions  as  well  as  a  number  of  fragments  ;  and  three  years  later 
in  his  Stabat  Mater  gave  in  an  appendix  1 7  additional  versions.  It  is  probable  that 
the  list  would  now  rise  to  over  100,  Schaff  estimating,  in  1890,  that  the  number  then 
was  from  80  to  100.  Just  as  the  English  list  can  boast  such  names  as  those  of 
Crashaw,  Dryden,  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Macaulay,  so  the  German  includes  versions  by 
Herder  and  A.  W.  von  Schlegel. 

4  Schaff,  p.  141. 

5  Lectures  on  the  True,  the  Beautiful  and  the  Good,  p.  177. 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE. 


421 


German  "  War  of  Liberation  "  of  181 3  ;  and  in  a  letter  to  Crabbe 
he  remarks  :  "  To  my  Gothic  ear,  the  Stabat  Mater,  the  Dies  Irae, 
and  some  of  the  other  hymns  of  the  Catholic  Church,  are  more 
solemn  and  affecting  than  the  fine  classical  poetry  of  Buchanan  ; 
the  one  has  the  gloomy  dignity  of  a  Gothic  church,  and  reminds 
us  constantly  of  the  worship  to  which  it  is  dedicated  ;  the  other  is 
more  like  a  pagan  temple,  recalling  to  our  memory  the  classical 
and  fabulous  deities."  Lockhart  tells  us  how,  in  his  dying  hours, 
he  was  distinctly  overheard  repeating  frequently  "  the  cadence  of 
the  Dies  Irae"  Like  Goethe  and  Scott,  Justinus  Kerner,  "the 
Swabian  poet  and  mystic,"  introduced  effectively  the  first  two  lines 
of  the  Hymn  in  his  Wahnsinnige  Briider,  to  exhibit  the  awful 
power  of  the  doom-foreboding  cadences  on  hearts  that  have 
spurned  heavenly  things.  James  Clarence  Mangan's  translation 
is  so  exquisite,  and  is  withal  apparently  so  little  known,  that  we 
may  be  pardoned  for  giving  it  entire  in  a  footnote.6 
6  The  Four  Idiot  Brothers. 

So  spake  he,  and  died :  the  Four 
All  unmoved  beheld  him  die. 

Happy  he  ! — his  labors  o'er, 
He  was  ta'en  to  bliss  on  high, 

While  his  sons,  like  very  devils 

Loosed  from  Hell,  pursued  their  revels. 

Still  they  courted  each  excess 
Atheism  and  Vice  could  dare  ; 

Ironhearted,  feelingless, 

Not  a  hair  of  theirs  grew  grayer. 

"Live,"   they   cried,    "while  life  ena- 
bles! 

God  and  devil  alike  are  fables  !  " 

Once  at  midnight,  as  the  Four 
Riotously  reeled  along, 

From  an  open  temple- door 

Streamed  a  flood  of  holy  song, 

11  Cease,  ye  hounds,  your  yelling  noises  !" 

Cried  the  devil  by  their  voices. 

Through  the  temple  vast  and  dim 

Goes  the  unhallowed  greeting,  while 

Still  the  singers  chant  their  hymn. 
Hark  !  it  echoes  down  the  aisle — 

"Dies  irae,  dies  ilia, 

Solvet  saeclum  in  favilla. " 


Dried,  as  'twere,  to  skeleton  chips, 
In  the  Madhouse  found  I  four  : 

From  their  white  and  shrivelled  lips 
Cometh  language  never  more. 

Ghastly,  stony,  stiff,  each  brother 

Gazes  vacant  on  the  other  ; 

Till  the  midnight  hour  be  come  ; 

Bristles  then  erect  their  hair, 
And  their  lips,  all  day  so  dumb, 

Utter  slowly  to  the  air  : 
"Dies  irae,  dies  ilia, 
Solvet  saeclum  in  favilla. " 

Four  bold  brothers  once  were  these, 

Riotous  and  reprobate, 
Whose  rake-hellish  revelries 

Terrified  the  more  sedate. 
Ghostly  guide  and  good  adviser 
Tried  in  vain  to  make  them  wiser. 

On  his  deathbed  spake  their  sire — 
"  Hear  your  father  from  his  tomb  ! 

Rouse  not  God's  eternal  ire  ; 
Ponder  well  the  day  of  doom, 

(Dies  irae,  dies  ilia, 

Solvet  saeclum  in  favilla.''  " 


422 


THE  DOLPHIN. 


VIII. 

Rex  tremendae  majestatis, 
Qui  salvandos  salvas  gratis, 
Salva  me,  fons  pietatis. 


VIII. 

King  of  awful  majesty, 

Who  savest  freely  those  who  are  to  be 

saved, 
Save  me,  fount  of  loving  pity. 


An  interesting  addition  to  the  literary  history  of  the  Hymn  is 
furnished  us  anent  this  eighth  stanza  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Thompson, 
editor  of  Duffield's  Latin  Hymns,  in  his  treatment  of  the  Dies  Irae : 
"  Carlyle  shows  us  the  Romanticist  tragedian  Werner  quoting  the 
eighth  stanza  in  his  strange  '  last  testament,'  as  his  reason  for  hav- 
ing written  neither  a  defence  nor  an  accusation  of  his  life :  '  With 
trembling  I  reflect  that  I  myself  shall  first  learn  in  its  whole  ter- 
rific compass  what  I  properly  was,  when  these  lines  shall  be  read 
by  men ;  that  is  to  say,  in  a  point  of  time  which  for  me  will  be  no 
time ;  in  a  condition  in  which  all  experience  will  for  me  be  too 
late : 

'  Rex  tremendae  majestatis, 
Qui  salvandos  salvas  gratis, 
Salva  me,  fons  pietatis  !  !  !  '  " 

Mr.  Warren  notes  that  the  simplicity  of  the  English  "  tre- 
mendous "  as  a  rendering  of  the  Latin  treme?idae  seems  to  have 
proved  too  great  an  attraction  for  translators,  who  forget  that  the 
English  connotations  of  "  tremendous  "  are  not  exactly  those  of 
tremendae.  Yet  the  word  can  not  be  easily  rendered  into  Eng- 
lish,— such  words  as  "  fearful  "  and  "  awful,"  which  might  literally 
translate  it,  having  acquired  colloquially  a  most  trivial  meaning ; 
while  such  a  phrase  as  "  to-be-feared  "  would  never  answer  the 


On  the  instant,  stricken  as 

By  the  wrath  of  God  they  stand, 

Each  dull  eyeball  fixed  like  glass, 

Mute  each  eye,  unnerved  each  hand, 

Blanched  their  hair  and  wan  their  fea- 
tures, 

Speechless,  mindless,  idiot  creatures  ! 

And  now,  dried  to  skeleton  chips, 

In  the  Mad-cell  sit  the  Four, 
Moveless  : — from  their  blasted  lips 


Cometh  language  never  more. 
Ghastly,  stony,  stiff,  each  brother 
Gazes  vacant  on  the  other  ; 

Till  the  midnight  hour  be  come  ; 

Bristles  then  erect  their  hair, 
And  their  lips,  all  day  so  dumb, 

Utter  slowly  to  the  air: 
"Dies  irae,  dies  i//a, 
Sclvet  saeclum  in /avi//a.i> 


Mangan  was  a  half-mystic  himself,  and  the  poem  of  Kerner  must  have  moved 
him  to  seek  special  vividness  in  this  translation.  As  was  Mangan' s  custom,  he  every- 
where writes  the  name  of  God  in  capitals. 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  423 

necessities  of  rhythm,  metre,  condensation  of  phrase,  or  perhaps 
of  rhyme. 

The  second  line — 

Qui  salvandos  salvas  gratis — 

has  given  trouble  theologically  to  more  than  one  translator  and 
commentator,  quite  apart  from  its  crucial  demands  upon  the  flexi- 
bility of  English  phraseology  in  the  rendering  of  salvandos, — 
"  those-who-are-to-be-saved."  "  There  seems  to  be  no  utility," 
thinks  Mr.  Orby  Shipley,  "  in  treating  of  the  dogmatic  question 
which  underlies  the  language  of  the  eighth  triplet  in  connection 
with  the  words  Qui  salvandos  salvas  gratis.  This  line  has  con- 
siderably exercised  certain  Protestant  translators ;  but  it  is  no 
concern  of  ours.  We  may  be  well  content  with  the  sanction  for 
the  orthodoxy  of  Thomas  of  Celano's  theology  which  is  afforded 
by  the  adoption  of  his  hymn  by  the  Catholic  Church."  Either 
very  little  or  very  much  must  indeed  be  said  by  anyone  who 
undertakes  to  treat  of  "  election."  Briefly  it  may  be  said  that  by 
corresponding  with  grace  we  may  merit  additional  grace ;  but  it 
remains  nevertheless  true  that,  as  Cardinal  Manning  somewhere 
says,  we  must  confront  the  great  fact  that  God  holds  in  His  own 
hands  the  first  and  last  links  in  the  chain  of  salvation — Baptism 
and  Final  Perseverance — the  former  of  which  we  can  in  no  wise 
merit,  and  the  latter  only  de  congruo  ;  for  history  seems  to  concur 
with  theology  in  the  sad  reflection  of  Cardinal  Newman : — 

"  The  white-haired  saint  may  fail  at  last, 
The  surest  guide  a  wanderer  prove  : 
Death  only  binds  us  fast 
To  the  great  shore  of  love  !  " 

But  while  the  grace  of  final  perseverance  is  in  the  strictest 
sense  a  gratuitous  gift  of  God ;  while,  that  is  to  say,  we  may  not 
merit  such  a  grace  de  condigno  or  as  something  proportioned  to 
the  good  works  we  shall  have  performed, — still,  we  can  merit  it 
de  congruo  or  as  something  which  the  mercy  of  Christ  may  accord 
to  works  which,  juridically  considered,  have  no  such  legal  reward. 
And  so  the  immortal  Hymn  reminds  us  that  we  should  appeal  to 
the  "  sweet  pity  of  Christ  "  : 

Salva  me,  fons  pietatis  ! 


424  THE  DOLPHIN. 

It  is  somewhat  curious  to  notice,  in  this  connection,  that  the 
last  stanza  of  Charles  Wesley's  "  Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul,"  sounds 
almost  like  a  translation  of 

Qui  salvandos  salvas  gratis, 
Salva  me,  fons  pietatis. 

The  last  four  lines  run  : 

"  Thou  of  life  the  Fountain  art  ; 
Freely  let  me  take  of  Thee  : 
Spring  Thou  up  within  my  heart  ; 
Rise  to  all  eternity.' ' 

On  the  other  hand,  Augustus  Toplady,  whose  Calvinism  was 
so  fiercely  arrayed  against  the  Arminianism  of  Wesley,  seemed  to 
have  gained  the  day  polemically  in  the  mere  writing  of  the  famous 
hymn  Rock  of  Ages.  "  Nothing  in  my  hand  I  bring  "  is  not,  it  is 
needless  to  say,  the  Catholic  idea  of  meriting  de  congruo  : 

"  Nothing  in  my  hand  I  bring, 
Simply  to  Thy  cross  I  cling ; 
Naked,  come  to  Thee  for  dress, 
Helpless,  look  to  Thee  for  grace  ; 
Foul,  I  to  the  fountain  fly, 
Wash  me,  Saviour,  or  I  die." 

The  "  fons  pietatis  "  appears  again  here,  as  in  Wesley's  hymn  ; 
and  both  may  have  had  in  mind  the  great  line  of  the  Dies  Irae. 
The  Catholic  will  have,  however,  a  different  thought  from  Toplady 's 
in  singing  the  Dies  Irae  verse.  Gladstone  translated  the  Rock  of 
Ages  into  Latin  in  the  style  of  the  mediaeval  poets.  The  above 
stanza  runs  in  his  version : 

"  Nil  in  manu  mecum  fero, 
Sed  me  versus  crucem  gero  ; 
Vestimenta  nudus  oro, 
Opem  debilis  imploro  ; 
Fontem  Christi  quaero  immundus, 
Nisi  laves,  moribundus. " 

It  is  a  strange,  but  withal  an  interesting  fact,  to  record  in  this 
connection,  that  in  the  Appendix  to  the  American  edition  of 
Father  Caswall's  Lyra  Catholica]  the  Rock  of  Ages  should  have 
been  printed  entire,  with  the  first  line  of  Gladstone's  version  into 

7  New  York  :  Edward  Dunigan  and  Brother.      1851.     P.  349. 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  425 

Latin  as  a  heading  or  title  (as  though  the  hymn  were  a  transla- 
tion from  the  Latin) :  Jesus  pro  me  perforatus.  The  prepossession 
in  the  mind  of  the  Catholic  compiler  that  the  hymn  was  merely 
an  English  rendering  of  a  Latin  hymn  probably  forbade  an  ad- 
verse interpretation  of  the  non-Catholic  sentiment  of  the  line : 
"  Nothing  in  my  hand  I  bring."  It  is  true,  of  course,  that  after 
we  shall  have  done  all  things  commanded,  we  should,  as  our 
Saviour  warns  us,  account  ourselves  "  unprofitable  servants ;"  and 
there  is  therefore  a  true  sense  in  which  the  Catholic  may  humbly 
declare : 

"  Nothing  in  my  hand  I  bring, 
Simply  to  Thy  cross  I  cling;" 

but  that  sense  is  scarcely  Toplady's  meaning  in  the  two  lines  of 
his  famous  hymn. 

Speaking  of  this  eighth  stanza  of  the  Dies  Irae,  the  Protestant 
Mr.  Hutton,  one  of  its  translators,  wrote  in  the  London  Spectator 
(March  7,  1868):— 

"This  tense  and  majestic  and  intense  verse  is  the  very  key  of  the 
whole  hymn.  It  is  an  individual  appeal  on  the  part  of  an  individual 
soul  which  has  been  following  up  slowly  the  whole  train  of  thought 
connected  with  the  scene  in  which  it  will  have  to  play  a  part.  And 
thus  realizing  that  Christ's  will  to  save  is  his  only  hope,  the  writer 
goes  on  to  draw  out  a  personal  appeal  to  Christ  why  He  should  not 
lose  even  this  single  grain  of  His  possible  harvest.  Was  it  not  Christ's 
love  for  each  individual  sinner  that  brought  Him  down  from  heaven  to 
earth  ;  that  moved  Him  to  wander  over  the  earth,  where  He  had  no- 
where to  lay  His  head  ;  that  inspired  Him,  when  He  sat  weary  by  the 
well  of  Samaria ;  that  led  Him  to  bear  His  cross  and  endure  His  pas- 
sion ?  Should  such  acts  as  these  fail  of  their  effect,  even  in  the  case 
of  the  worst  of  sinners  who  desires  to  be  saved  ?  The  writer  hopes 
nothing  from  his  own  prayers,  but  much  from  the  love  shown  in  the 
pardon  of  such  sinners  as  Mary  Magdalene  and  the  thief  upon  the 
cross.  The  whole  tenor  of  the  hymn  is  one  of  personal  appeal,  of 
loving  devotion,  of  humble  contrition.  When  it  is  grandest,  it  is 
sweetest  and  contains  least  of  physical  imagery. ' ' 

Mr.  Hutton  is  in  so  far  correct  that  the  final  appeal  is  to  be 
made  to  the  love  of  Christ ;  but  such  an  appeal  presupposes  some- 
thing on  the  part  of  the  penitent : 


426  THE  DOLPHIN, 

Ingemisco  tanquam  reus, 
Culpa  rubet  vultus  meus — 
Supplicanti  parce,  Deus  ! 

The  culprit  must  acknowledge  his  guilt,  bewail  his  fault,  and 
ask  for  pardon. 

IX.  IX. 

Recordare,  Jesu  pie,  Remember,  loving  Jesus, 

Quod  sum  causa  tuae  viae  :  That  for  me  Thou  earnest  on  earth  : 

Ne  me  perdas  ilia  die.  Lose  me  not  upon  that  day. 

The  difficulty  which  Mr.  Warren  has  with  the  rendering  of 
pie  by  some  such  word  as  "  loving,"  "  sweet,"  "  gentle,"  is  not 
easily  intelligible.  He  fears  the  suggestion,  in  such  words,  of  too 
great  familiarity  with  the  infinite  majesty  of  God ;  and  he  quotes 
with  apparent  approbation  the  "  words  of  solemn  warning  "  uttered 
by  an  annotator  of  Hymns  Ancient  and  Modem  :  "  God  infinitely 
condescends,  man  must  not  infinitely  presume."  On  the  other 
hand,  however,  we  must  not  forget  that  the  loving  effusiveness  of 
Italian  hearts — and  the  hymn  is  undoubtedly  Italian  in  author- 
ship— is  the  opposite  pole  of  that  legal  and  academic  phraseology 
which,  in  English  prayers,  makes  the  soul  seem  to  "  memorialize  " 
the  Almighty,  as  Cardinal  Wiseman  acutely  observes  in  his  dis- 
cussion of  "  Prayers."  Besides,  the  whole  Catholic  attitude  in 
prayer  is  one  of  pious  familiarity  with  the  Infinite, — not  through 
a  spirit  of  presumption,  but  through  that  "  spirit  of  adoption  of 
sons,  whereby  we  cry  Abba  (Father),"  as  St.  Paul  so  encourag- 
ingly has  it  (Rom.  8  :  15).  In  addition  to  all  this,  it  is  to  be  noted 
that  the  Hymn  has  turned  away,  in  the  progress  of  its  thought, 
from  the  engrossing  picture  of  the  stern  and  unrelenting  Judge, 
to  recall  the  picture  of  the  loving  Saviour,  to  whom  the  suppliant 
now  appeals  by  all  that  marvellous  excess  of  love  and  pity  mani- 
fested in  the  life  of  Christ  on  earth.  The  Catholic,  in  short, 
belongs  to  the  "household  of  the  faith";  God  is  his  Father; 
Christ  is  his  Brother ;  Mary  is  his  Mother  ;  he  is  living  "  at  home," 
and  he  enjoys  the  privilege  of  respectful  familiarity  with  those  of 
the  household. 

In  the  tender  appeal  which  this  stanza  makes  to  the  mercy 
and  love  of  Christ,  there  lies  a  complete  refutation  of  all  such 
utterances  as  that  of  Lord  Lindsay,  who,  while  he  pays  the  Hymn 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  427 

the  tribute  of  translation  in  his  Sketches  of  the  History  of  Christian 
Art  (1847),  takes  occasion  in  the  preface  of  that  work  to  describe 
the  wonderful  Sequence  as  "  expressive  of  the  feelings  of  dread 
and  almost  of  despair,  with  which  Christians  of  the  Middle  Ages 
— taught  to  look  on  Christ  as  Jehovah,  rather  than  the  merciful 
Mediator  through  whose  atoning  Blood  and  all-sufficient  merits 
the  sinner  is  reconciled  to  his  Maker — looked  forward  to  the  con- 
summation of  all  things."  But  Lord  Lindsay  must  have  forgotten 
many  hymnological  treasures — not  to  speak  of  other  religious 
monuments — of  the  Middle  Ages,  before  he  could  pen  such  a 
statement  concerning  the  Christians  of  those  days.  For  instance, 
there  is  the  exquisite  and  most  pathetic  hymn  of  St.  Bernard — 
the  Jesn  dulcis  memoria — which  the  Protestant  Schaff  calls  "  the 
sweetest  and  most  evangelical  hymn  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  and 
whose  200  lines  are  full  of  the  "  subjective  loveliness  "  (to  quote 
a  phrase  of  the  Anglican  hymnologist,  Dr.  Neale)  of  that  great 
saint.  And  he  must  also  have  forgotten  the  direct  address  by  the 
same  tender  saint  to  each  member  of  Christ's  suffering  Body,  in 
the  still  longer  hymn  Salve  tmtndi  Sa/utare, — a  hymn  which  has 
been  a  source  of  prolific  inspiration  to  the  most  beautiful  of 
Protestant  hymns,  such  as  the  famous  paraphrase  of  Paul  Ger- 
hardt.  He  must  have  forgotten  the  Eucharistic  hymns  of  St. 
Thomas  Aquinas,  the  Re  cor  dare  sanctae  Crucis  of  St.  Bonaventure, 
and — not  to  continue  a  list  which  could  be  swelled  out  to  vast 
limits  to  illustrate  the  fact  that  the  Christians  of  the  Middle  Ages 
looked  on  Christ  as  the  Mediator  and  not,  as  Lord  Lindsay  sug- 
gests, as  the  Jewish  Jehovah — the  Ad  perennis  vitae  fontem  of 
St.  Peter  Damian,  which  looks  forward  to  the  consummation  of 
all  things  not  "  with  feelings  of  dread  and  almost  despair,"  but 
even  "  as  the  hart  panteth  after  the  fountains  of  waters  "  : — 

Ad  perennis  vitae  fontem  mens  sitivit  arida  ; 
Claustra  carnis  praesto  frangi  clausa  quaerit  anima  ; 
Gliscit,  ambit,  eluctatur  exul  frui  patria. 

"  My  thirsty  heart  hath  panted  for  the  fountain  of  everlasting 
life.  My  soul  would  break  forthwith  through  this  prison  of  flesh 
— it  spreads  its  wings,  it  beats  the  bars,  it  struggles  to  break 
through  its  cage,  poor  exile,  to  gain  its  native  skies."  Is  this 
Lord  Lindsay's  "  dread  and  almost  despair  "  ?     And  yet  the  day 


428 


THE  DOLPHIN. 


of  liberation  contemplated  by  the  saint  is  the  day  of  that  "  particu- 
lar judgment"  which  shall  be  but  ratified  at  the  Last  Assize. 
More  directly  contradictory  of  his  thesis  concerning  the  "  feelings 
of  dread  and  almost  despair,"  however,  is  the  long  poem  of  the 
twelfth  century  from  which  we  have  already  quoted  some  verses.8 
From  a  part  of  it  dealing  directly  with  the  Last  Judgment  some 
stanzas  were  selected  by  Mrs.  Charles  for  translation  in  The  Voice 
of  Christian  Life  in  Song,  which  present  us  with  the  joyful  aspect 
of  that  Day.  Although  her  rendering  does  not  follow  the  exact 
order  of  the  original  Latin,  the  poem  is  of  such  interest  to  us  in 
this  connection,  both  as  illustrating  the  Dies  Irae  and  as  refuting 
the  contention  of  Lord  Lindsay,  that  we  shall  print  her  version 
here,  and  place  opposite  to  it  the  appropriate  stanzas  from  the 
Latin  original : — 


Dies  ilia,  dies  vitae, 
Dies  lucis  inauditae, 
Qua  nox  omnis  destruetur 
Et  mors  ipsa  morietur. 

Appropinquat  enim  dies 
In  qua  justis  erit  quies, 
Qua  cessabunt  persequentes, 
Et  regnabunt  patientes. 

Ecce  rex  desideratus 
Et  a  justis  expectatus 
Jam  festinat  exoratus 
Ad  salvandum  praeparatus. 

O  quam  pium,  o  quam  gratum, 
Quam  suave,  quam  beatum 
Erit  tunc  Jesum  videre 
His,  qui  eum  dilexere  ! 

O  quam  dulce,  quam  jocundum 
Erit  tunc  odisse  mundum, 
Et  quam  triste,  quam  amarum 
Mundum  habuisse  carum. 

O  beati  tunc  lugentes 
Et  pro  Christo  patientes, 
Quibus  saeculi  pressura 
Regna  dat  semper  mansura. 


Lo  !  the  day,  the  day  of  life, 
The  day  of  unimagined  light, 
The  day  when  death  itself  shall  die, 
And  there  shall  be  no  more  night. 

Steadily  that  day  approacheth 
When  the  just  shall  find  their  rest, 
When  the  wicked  cease  from  troubling, 
And  the  patient  reign  most  blest. 

See  the  King  desired  for  ages, 

By  the  just  expected  long  ; 

Long  implored,  at  length  He  hasteth, 

Cometh  with  salvation  strong. 

Oh,  how  past  all  utterance  happy, 
Sweet  and  joyful  it  will  be 
When  they  who,  unseen,  have  loved  Him, 
Jesus  face  to  face  shall  see. 

In  that  day  how  good  and  pleasant, 
This  poor  world  to  have  despised ; 
And  how  mournful  and  how  bitter, 
Dear  that  lost  world  to  have  prized. 

Blessed  then  earth's  patient  mourners, 
Who  for  Christ  have  toiled  and  died, 
Driven  by  the  world's  rough  pressure 
In  those  mansions  to  abide. 


•See  The  Dolphin  for  January,  p.  51. 


COMMENT  ON  THE  -DIES  IRAE."  429 

Ibi  jam  non  erit  metus,  There  shall  be  no  sighs  nor  weeping, 

Neque  luctus,  neque  fletus,  Not  a  shade  of  doubt  or  fear, 

Non  egestas,  non  senectus,  No  old  age,  no  want,  nor  sorrow, 

Nullus  denique  defectus.  Nothing  sick  or  lacking  there. 

Ibi  pax  erit  perennis  There  the  peace  will  be  unbroken, 

Et  laetitia  solennis,  Deep  and  solemn  joy  be  shed  ; 

Flos  et  decus  juventutis  Youth  in  fadeless  flower  and  freshness, 

Et  perfectio  salutis.  And  Salvation  perfected. 

Nemo  potest  cogitare  What  will  be  the  bliss  and  rapture 

Quantum  erit  exultare,  None  can  dream  and  none  can  tell, 

Tunc  in  coelis  habitare  There  to  reign  among  the  Angels, 

Et  cum  angelis  regnare.  In  that  heavenly  home  to  dwell. 

Ad  hoc  regnum  me  vocare,  To  those  realms,  just  Judge,  oh  call  me, 

Juste  Judex,  tunc  dignare,  Deign  to  open  that  blest  gate, 

Quem  exspecto,  quem  requiro,  Thou  whom  seeking,  looking,  longing, 

Ad  quem  avidus  suspiro.  I  with  eager  hope  await. 

These  stanzas  present  the  joyful  aspect  of  the  Day  of  Judgment ; 
but  the  poem  nevertheless  deals  also,  as  it  should,  with  the  un- 
happy lot  of  the  condemned  souls  : 

O  quam  grave,  quam  immite  Ibi  flammis  exuretur 

A  sinistris  erit :   Ite  !  Et  a  vermibus  rodetur, 

Cum  a  dextris  :  Vos  venite  !  Ab  angustiis  angetur, 

Dicet  rex,  largitor  vitae.  Qui  salvari  non  meretur,  etc. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  illustrate  further;  for  it  is  clear  by  this  time 
that  the  mediaeval  mind  saw  in  the  Day  of  Judgment  its  terrors, 
indeed  (as  Christ  would  have  all  Christians,  of  whatever  age,  con- 
template those  terrors),  but  could  also  see  its  blessed  joys, — could 
in  spirit  "  look  up  "  and  see  that  their  redemption  was  at  hand. 

It  is  strange  that  anyone  should,  in  the  face  of  such  hymno- 
logical  demonstrations  as  those  we  have  referred  to  (and  they 
form  but  a  slight  portion  of  the  testimony  that  could  easily  be 
adduced),  arraign  the  Middle  Ages  for  ascetical  harshness.  It  is 
strange,  too,  that  the  Dies  Irae  should  be  the  text  chosen  for  such 
comment  as :  "  Taught  to  look  on  Christ  as  Jehovah  rather  than 
the  merciful  Mediator  whose  atoning  Blood,"  etc.  This  generali- 
zation of  the  Dies  Irae  into  a  sweeping  arraignment  of  the  Middle 
Ages  would  be  a  piece  of  very  poor  logic,  even  were  the  logic 
based  on  a  correct  analysis  of  the  great  Sequence.  But  what 
could  be  more  "  evangelical "  than  the  Dies  Irae  itself? 


430  THE  DOLPHIN. 

Recordare,  Jesu  pie 

Quod  sura  causa  tuae  viae — 

what  is  this  but  an  appeal  to  Christ  ?  not  as  the  terrible  Jehovah  of 
the  Old  Law,  but  as  the  loving  Mediator  of  the  New  Law,  whose 
atoning  Blood  was  made  a  possibility  by  the  Incarnation,  as  ex- 
pressly alluded  to  in  the  line : 

Quod  sura  causa  tuae  viae  ? 

And  from  this  stanza  until  the  end  of  the  Hymn  we  find  nothing 
but  an  elaboration  of  this  one  thought.  "  The  atoning  Blood  and 
all-sufficient  merits  "  of  our  Saviour  appear  in  the  next  stanza  : 

Quaerens  me  sedisti  lassus, 
Rederaisti  crucem  passus  : 
Tantus  labor  non  sit  cassus  ! — 

where  the  singer  makes  the  very  point  that  he  has  been  purchased 
— redemisti — by  the  Blood  shed  upon  the  Cross  for  him.  Redem- 
isti, — Christ  has  not  merely  purchased  the  sinner:  He  has  re- 
deemed him,  has  paid  the  ransom  necessary,  has  paid  it  com- 
pletely; and  the  appeal  is  now  to  that  love  of  Christ  for  the 
sinner,  to  the  end  that  what  has  been  so  dearly  bought  may  not 
be  lost  again : 

Tantus  labor  non  sit  cassus  ! 

And  where  are  the  "  feelings  of  dread  and  almost  of  despair  "  in 
the  stanza  which  chronicles  the  forgiveness  shown  to  the  "  sinful 
woman"  who  in  the  Hymn  is  called  Mary,  and  the  mercy  granted 
to  the  "  penitent  thief," — instances  of  mercy  on  which  the  singer 
bases,  not  despair,  but  an  explicit  hope  ? 

Mihi  quoque  spem  dedisti ! 

The  simple  truth  is  that  the  hymnody  of  the  Middle  Ages,  so 
replete  with  exquisite  and  direct  allusions  to  the  saving  power  of 
the  Cross,  demonstrates  the  very  opposite  thesis  to  that  of  Lord 
Lindsay,  whose  generalization,  howevrer,  is  shared  by  other 
similarly  hasty  reasoners ;  and  if  this  were  the  place  to  do  it,  and 
if  space  sufficed,  a  very  interesting  paper  might  be  constructed  of 
merely  hymnodal — not  to  speak  of  other  sources  of  illustration — 
tributes  to  the  fact  we  assert.  With  respect  to  the  Dies  Irae,  we 
have  shown  that  the  Hymn  of  Judgment  itself  was  made  by  its 
author  to  pay  such  a  tribute.     The  Protestant  Dr.  SchafT  recog- 


COMMENT  ON  THE    "DIES  IRAE."  43 1 

nizes  this  fact  when  he  says : 9  "  The  feeling  of  terror  occasioned 
by  that  event  (i.  e.y  the  Judgment)  culminates  in  the  cry  of  re- 
pentance, ver.  7 :  '  Quid  sum  miser  tunc  dicturus,'  etc.;  but  from 
this  the  poet  rises  at  once  to  the  prayer  of  faith,  and  takes  refuge 
from  the  wrath  to  come  in  the  infinite  mercy  of  Him  who  suffered 
nameless  pain  for  a  guilty  world,  who  pardoned  the  sinful  Magda- 
lene, and  saved  the  dying  robber." 

X.  X. 

Quaerens  me  sedisti  lassus.  Seeking  me  Thou  sattest  weary  ; 

Redemisti  crucem  passus  :  Redeemedst  me,  suffering  the  cross  ; 

Tantus  labor  non  sit  cassus.  Be  not  so-great  a  labor  vain. 

While  the  idea  of  resting  {sedisti)  during  the  long  journey 
(via  of  the  preceding  stanza)  is  typical,  as  Mr.  Warren  is  inclined 
to  allow,  of  all  the  restings  of  Jesus,  still  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  the  poet  had  in  mind  the  exquisitely  touching  picture  of  our 
Lord  resting  by  Jacob's  Well,  and  awaiting  the  Samaritan  woman. 
"Jesus,  being  wearied  with  his  journey,  sat  thus  at  the  well" 
(John  4:  6).  And  St.  Augustine  comments :  "Not  in  vain  was 
Jesus  wearied.  .  .  .  Jesus  was  wearied  with  the  journey  for 
your  sake."  Jesus  was  indeed  wearied  "  seeking  the  lost  sheep  of 
the  house  of  Israel."  The  Sacred  Humanity  of  Christ  is  presented 
here  with  such  an  appealing  weakness  as  to  touch  every  heart  to 
pity  and  love.  Dr.  Johnson  could  not  repeat  the  stanza  Quaerens 
me  sedisti  lassus  without  shedding  tears  ;  and  his  emotion  must  be 
shared  by  all  in  some  measure.  Turning  from  the  content  of  the 
stanza  to  its  mere  form,  we  meet  "  the  climax  of  verbal  harmony  " 
of  the  five  flawless  stanzas  beginning  with  Judex  ergo  cum  sedebit. 
"  The  climax  of  verbal  harmony,"  says  Mr.  Saintsbury,10  "  corres- 
ponding to  and  expressing  religious  passion  and  religious  awe,  is 
reached  in  the  last, 

Quaerens  me  sedisti  lassus, 
Redemisti  crucem  passus : 
Tantus  labor  non  sit  cassus  ! — 

where  the  sudden  change  from  the  dominant  e  sounds  (except  in 
the  rhyme  foot)  of  the  first  two  lines  to  the  a's  of  the  last  is  simply 
miraculous,  and  miraculously  assisted  by  what  may  be  called  the 

9  Christ  in  Song,  p.  373. 

10  Flourishing  of Romance,  p.  10. 


432  THE  DOLPHIN, 

internal  sub-rhyme  of  sedisti  and  redemisti.  This  latter  effect  can 
rarely  be  attempted  without  a  jingle :  there  is  no  jingle  here,  only 
an  ineffable  melody.  After  the  Dies  Irae,  no  poet  could  say  that 
any  effect  of  poetry  was,  as  far  as  sound  goes,  unattainable,  though 
few  could  have  hoped  to  equal  it,  and  perhaps  no  one  except 
Dante  and  Shakespeare  has  fully  done  so."  It  is  indeed  interest- 
ing to  listen  to  so  eminent  a  critic  praising  in  such  apparently 
unmeasured  terms  a  great  mediaeval  hymn  with  which  Catholics 
become  so  familiar  from  early  childhood  as  to  lose,  perhaps,  a 
sufficiently  keen  appreciation  of  its  many  and  marvellous  excel- 
lences. 

H.  T.  Henry. 
Overbrook  Seminary,  Pa. 


THE  SOUL  OF  OLD  JAPAN.1 


A  STUDY  at  once  more  timely  and  more  attractive  has  seldom 
offered  itself  than  that  lately  furnished  by  Mr.  Lafcadio 
Hearn  in  his  "  Interpretation  "  (tentative  as  this  professedly  is)  of 
the  inner  life  of  Japan. 

So  far  as  this  is  possible  to  a  Western,  the  writer  has  learned 
to  see  with  the  eyes,  hear  with  the  ears,  and  think  with  the  brain, 
of  the  Far  East;  and  the  object  of  this,  the  final  work  of  his  life, 
is  on  the  one  hand  to  indicate  the  breadth  of  the  gulf  by  which 
this  ancient  world  lies  sundered  from  us ;  and  on  the  other  to 
explain  as  far  as  may  be  how  so  great  a  gulf  has  come  to  be. 

It  would  be  impossible  without  voluminous  extracts  to  do 
justice  to  the  suggestion  of  archaic  charm  with  which  the  opening 
chapter  abounds.  "  The  Calling  of  the  East "  which  here  greets 
us  is  the  voice  of  a  past  already  old  when  history  and  literature 
were  young.  Many  people,  observes  the  writer,  would  be  de- 
lighted, were  it  only  possible,  to  step  backwards  into  time  and 
find  themselves  living  for  a  while  in  the  beautiful  vanished  world 
of  Greek  culture ;  but  even  could  they  do  so,  the  privilege, 
arch?eologically  speaking,  would  be  by  no  means  so  great  as  that 
which  the  present  still  offers  us  in  the  existing  life  of  Japan ;  for 

1  Japan — An  Attempt  at  Interpretation.  By  Lafcadio  Hearn.  New  York  and 
London:   Macmillan  &  Co.     1904. 


NOTES  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  563 


THE  DOLPHIN. 


Vol.  VII.  May,   1905,  No.  5. 


pretty  stories  of  the  butterflies,  wonderfully  protected  by  their 
colors,  and  of  fishes  and  other  animals  coming  under  the  same 
category,  which  have  had  to  be  corrected  afterwards  and  which, 
now  that  the  passing  of  Darwinism  has  become  one  of  the  stock 
subjects  in  all  biological  magazines,  are  seen  to  have  been  a  good 
deal  more  fiction  than  anything  that  Verne  wrote,  but  with  unfor- 
tunate tendencies  in  the  matter  of  unsettling  conservative  thought 
with  regard  to  great  truths,  such  as  his  works  were  never  guilty  of. 

James  J.  Walsh. 
New  York  City. 


NOTES  ON  THE  ENGLISH  VERSIONS  OP  THE  "DIES  IRAK" 

THE  following  articles  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Warren  and  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Henry  conclude  the  series  of  papers  on  the  Dies  Irae. 
The  Hymn  has  thus  been  adequately  treated  in  respect  both  of 
its  proper  rendition  into  English  and  of  its  more  general  literary 
history.  Should  any  of  our  readers,  however,  desire  to  supple- 
ment the  treatment  with  quotation  or  reference,  we  should  be 
grateful  for  the  courtesy ;  and  we  take  this  occasion  to  acknowl- 
edge the  kindness  of  those  who  have  called  our  attention  to 


564  THE  DOLPHIN. 

several  translations  into  English  which  had  escaped  the  notice  of 
previous  bibliographers  of  the  Hymn. — The  Editor. 

Stanzas  XI— XVIII. 
By  the  late  C.  F.  S.  Warren,  M.A. 

11.   Juste  Judex  ultionis, 
Donum  fac  remissionis, 
Ante  diem  rationis. 

Like  other  lines  in  the  Hymn,  this  first  line  is  doubtless  taken 
from  the  Vulgate,  in  Ps.  94  :  1,  "  Deus  ultionum  ";  retained  as  the 
title  of  the  Psalm  in  the  English  Prayer-book  version.  This  has  been 
from  the  first  translated  as  in  the  familiar  beginning,  "  O  Lord  God, 
to  whom  vengeance  belongeth,"  and  we  may  take  such  to  be  the 
primary  meaning  here. 

But  most  translators  have  taken  the  passing  on  of  the  interpreta- 
tion to  the  subject  now  in  hand,  according  to  Isaiah's  verse,  35  :  4, 
"Your  God  will  come  with  vengeance,"  as  thus — 

"  Thou  just  Judge  of  vengeance  due, 
Pardon  of  my  sins  renew, 
Ere  the  reckoning  day  ensue. ' ' 

— Dymock. 

Other  versions,  of  course,  there  are  which  so  far  as  this  first  line 
is  concerned  are  not  unsatisfactory,  but  throughout  they  satisfy  not : 
as  where  a  writer  begins  with  such  a  line  as  Mighty  Judge  of  retribu- 
tion, and  going  on  successfully  it  may  be  with  Grant  the  gift  of  abso- 
lution, is  forced  to  close  with  Ere  the  day  of  restitution,  or  execution, 
or  dissolution,  or  even  prosecution — a  lame  and  impotent  conclusion. 
I  know  that  an  apology  is  due  for  lapsing  into  such  a  style  of  fault- 
finding ;  but  it  is  hard  to  resist  the  temptation ;  and  a  man  who 
deliberately  chooses  the  difficult  double  rhymes  when  he  might  choose 
the  easier  single  ones,  has  not  so  much  right  to  claim  forbearance, 
unless  it  be  his  firm  conviction  that  he  has  no  right  to  abandon  the  exact 
metre  of  the  original ;  and  even  then  it  may  be  answered  that  the 
necessity  is  but  imaginary,  and  the  thought  therefore  nothing  more 
than  a  delusion. 

The  third  line  supplies  another  of  the  many  instances  of  Thomas 
of  Celano's  use  of  Scriptural  language.  Ratio  is  the  word  used  by 
the  Vulgate  in  the  parables  both  of  the  Unmerciful  Servant  (Matt.  18) 


NOTES  ON  THE  ''DIES  1RAE."  565 

and  of  the  Talents  (Matt.  25).  The  allusion  is  of  course  directly  to 
the  latter  of  the  two  parables,  where  the  original  phrase  is  "  venit 
dominus  .  ,  .  et  posuit  rationem."  The  corresponding  English 
word  every  one  will  remember,  "the  lord  of  those  servants  cometh 
and  reckoneth  with  them, ' '  and  it  has  happened  here  what  has  not 
always  happened  in  such  cases,  that  the  word  reckoning  has  been  very 
often  adopted  in  the  versions.  Curiously  enough  too  the  Revised  New 
Testament  has  adopted  the  identical  participial  form,  altering  the 
translation  from  reckoneth  to  ?naking  a  reckoni?ig. 

Line  i.  —  Judge,  all  but  universal;  avenger,  dispenser;  just,  21; 
righteous,  19;  dread,  great,  severe,  mighty,  supreme, 
impartial,  inexorable  ;  vengeance,  8  ;  retribution,  6  ;  deci- 
sion, 3  ;   recompense,  2  ;  decree,  1  ;  penalty,  1 . 

Line  ii. — Remission,  14  ;  absolution,  9  ;    pardon,  7  ;    forgiveness,  2. 

Line  Hi. — (Day  of)  reckoning,  19;  accounting,  5;  execution,  4; 
inquisition,  3  ;  assizes  or  assize,  3  ;  retribution,  2  ;  restitu- 
tion, 2  ;  dissolution,  2  ;  prosecution,  1  ;  decision,  division, 
revision,  exaction,  revealing,  declaring,  review,  punish- 
ment, agony. 

12.   Ingemisco,  tanquam  reus  : 
Culpa  rubet  vultus  meus  : 
Supplicanti  parce,  Deus. 

"  Reus  "  in  the  first  line  is  not  merely  one  against  whom  a  charge 
may  be  brought,  but  one  against  whom  a  charge  actually  is  brought ; 
for  the  soul  looks  upon  herself  as  already  accused,  if  not,  so  to  say 
without  irreverence,  "committed  for  trial  ";  this  is  shewn  by  the  line 
quern  patronum  rogaturus.  But  there  are  very  few  translators  (of  those 
who  are  categorical ;  many  as  usual  are  vague  and  indistinct)  who 
have  thus  marked  out  the  word  ;  one  is  Mr.  D.  T.  Morgan — 

"As  one  condemned  I  sigh  apace ; 
All  scarlet  is  my  guilty  face  ; 
Lord,  to  a  suppliant  grant  Thy  grace. ' ' 

With  regard  to  the  second  line,  we  must  remember  that  the  soul 
is  still  in  the  body  while  she  speaks  ;  forgetfulness  of  this  led  "  O,"  in 
the  Christian  Remembrancer,  1825,  greatly  struck  with  the  seeming 
absurdity  of  attributing  blushes  to  a  disembodied  spirit,  to  offer  the 
following  singular  apology — 


566  THE  DOLPHIN. 

' 'Abashed  and  guilty  would  I  kneel, 
In  blushes  deep  my  shame  conceal, 
Could  ghosts  thus  utter  what  they  feel." 

The  two  ways  of  turning  the  last  line  are  to  retain  the  imperson- 
ality of  the  original  supplicanti,  or  to  define  it  by  adding  me,  or  in 
some  like  manner ;  there  are  good  versions  of  both  kinds,  and  it  is  a 
matter  on  which  opinions  may  very  well  be  allowed  to  differ ;  still, 
however,  perhaps  the  former  plan  is  preferable — it  is  better  on  the 
whole  to  be  literal  while  you  can.  As  to  such  an  ending  as  "thy 
suppliant  groaning, "  or  "  moaning, ' '  this  must  be  avoided  at  all  risks  ; 
and  more  certainly  still,  if  one  of  these  words  has  been  used  in  the 
first  line,  the  other  must  not  be  rhymed  with  it  in  the  third.  I  am 
indeed  not  very  sure  that  they  are  now  sufficiently  dignified  to  be 
used  at  all. 

Line  i. — Groan,    32;    sigh,    5;    grieve,    2;    mourn,    2;    wail,  sob. 

Guilty  or  guilt,  20  :    guilty  creature,  2  ;    guilty  thing,  1  ; 

culprit,     7  ;    condemned,     4 ;     convicted,     2  ;    arraigned, 

wretched,  malefactor. 
Line  ii. — Shame,  22  ;  guilt,  n  ;  sin,  3.     Blush  (verb  or  noun),  25  ; 

flush,  3  ;  burn,  5  ;  dye,  5  ;  sting,  1.     Crimson,  7  ;  scarlet, 

2;  red,  1.     Face,    18;  cheek,    10;  each  cheek,  1  ;  brow, 

4  ;  feature,  2  ;  visage  1. 
Line  Hi. — Spare,   39  ;    hear,    5  ;  pity,    3  ;    (grant  or  give)  grace,  6  ; 

mercy,  5.     Suppliant,  37  ;  who  supplicate,  1  ;  supplicating 

cry,  1  ;  beseecher,  1.     God,  24;  Lord,  16;  Jesu,  Saviour, 

Holy  One. 

13.  Qui  Mariam  absolvisti, 
Et  latronem  exaudisti ; 
Mihi  quoque  spem  dedisti. 

We  come  in  this  verse  to  another  various  reading  worthy  of  notice. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Qui  Mariam  as  here  given  is  the  correct 
reading ;  but  the  same  Paris  Missal  mentioned  under  verse  1  reads 
Peccatricem,  and  as  there,  so  here  too,  alters  the  reading  without  any 
authority.  It  used  to  be  held  almost,  so  to  say,  as  an  article  of  faith, 
that  the  woman  whose  anointing  of  our  Lord's  feet  is  recorded  in 
Luke  7  was  no  other  than  Mary  Magdalene ;  opinion  on  this  point 
began  to  change  almost  immediately  after  the  Reformation  (leading  to 
the  omission  of  St.  Mary  Magdalene's  Day,  2 2d  July,  from  the  Second 


NOTES  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  567 

Book  of  King  Edward)  ...  As  this  latter  opinion  grew,  it  would 
seem  that  editors  (which  few  men  would  now  do)  considered  them- 
selves at  liberty  to  alter  the  text  of  the  Hymn  accordingly ;  but  there 
can  surely  be  no  objection  to  keeping  the  original  reading  as  showing 
the  old  opinion,  .  .  .  any  more  than  there  can  be  in  verse  1  to  keep- 
ing Teste  David  cum  Sibylla,  even  if  the  introduction  of  the  Sibyl  to  a 
Christian  hymn  be  thought  questionable ;  and  thus  those  translators, 
not  very  many,  who  have  taken  Peccatricem  to  turn,  must  be  con- 
sidered mistaken  ;  their  tabulation  will  as  usual  be  given  hereafter. 
Mr.  Russell's  doubt  on  this  point  has  caused  the  very  general  line, 
"  Peace  Thy  love  to  faith  declared";  Dr.  Coles  is  inconsistent  with 
himself,  for  in  his  original  he  gives  Mariam,  and  yet  in  two  versions 
he  translates  Peccatricem. 

In  Doctor  Coles'  thirteenth  version,  a  professed  paraphrase,  there 
is  a  rendering  of  some  beauty — 

"When  Mary  Thy  forgiveness  sought, 
Wept,  but  articulated  nought, 
Thou  didst  forgive  ;  didst  hear  the  brief 
Petition  of  the  dying  thief. ' ' 

And  one  more  version  of  his,  which  must  be  noticed  as  the  only  one 
to  introduce  the  occasion  on  which  Mary,  as  supposed,  was  absolved, 
is  this — 

"Thou  didst  smile  on  Mary' 's  unction, 

Tearful  love  and  deep  compunction, 

On  the  dying  thief's  confession." 

' '  To-day  shalt  thou  be  with  Me  in  Paradise  " ;  so  said  our  Saviour 
to  the  dying  thief,  and  Paradise  is  not  the  same  as  Heaven  ;  but  there 
are  writers  who  have  disregarded  this  and  given  such  a  line  as  Thou 
who  ledst  the  thief  to  heaven,  or  Thou  didst  call  the  thief  to  heaven ; 
though  such  a  one  as  To  the  thief  Thou  openedst  heaven,  or  didst 
promise  heaven  may  be  passed  as  only  expressing  the  implied  promise 
of  heaven  necessarily  to  succeed  paradise,  not,  like  the  others,  its  actual 
enjoyment  by  the  thief.  The  error  is  an  important  one,  for  it  in- 
volves— or  it  would  involve  if  it  were  likely  the  translators  thought 
what  they  were  writing — nothing  less  than  a  denial  of  the  Interme- 
diate State  ;  to  which  doctrine  the  slight  attention  paid  by  Protest- 
antism has  been  and  is  one  of  the  greatest  blemishes  of  that  religious 
system.     Thomas  of  Celano  has  hinted  at  no  doctrine  in  his  original, 


568  THE  DOLPHIN. 

and  therefore  we  are  not  bound  to  do  so  in  our  translations ;  but  if 
we  do,  let  us  at  least  do  like  the  awkward  lines  of  Mr.  Hoskyns- 
Abrahall,  and  hint  at  a  correct  one — 

"Thou  to  Mary  from  pollution 
Didst  pronounce  full  absolution, 
Nor  wast  to  the  felon  dying 
E'en  Thy  paradise  denying." 

The  third  line  is  a  distinct  avowal  that  hope  has  been  given,  and 
it  is  therefore  wrong  to  turn  it  into  a  petition  for  the  giving  of  hope, 
as  is  done  by  two  versions  of  very  opposite  character ;  a  Roman 
Catholic  one — 

' '  Thou  who  Mary  of  the  garden 
And  the  dying  thief  didst  pardon, 
Grant  e'en  me  hope's  heavenly  guerdon." 

— C.  Kent. 
and  a  Presbyterian  one — 

"Thou  didst  save  the  woman  pleading, 
And  the  thief  beside  Thee  bleeding  ; 
Grant  me  hope  like  pity  needing ;" 

— Dr.  Macgill. 

and  to  this  must  be  added  that  the  hope  still  exists,  the  whole  tenor 
of  the  verse  rests  in  it ;  therefore  Mr.  Cayley  in  the  Church  Times, 
( Thou)  Once  to  me  a  hope  appearedst,  is  also  wrong  as  hinting  that 
the  hope  is  gone.     While  a  mistake  of  a  different  kind  is  in  this — 

"Thou  to  Mary  gavest  remission, 
And  didst  hear  the  thief's  petition  ; 
Hope  shall  also  cheer  my  vision." 

— Dr.  Wallace. 

Mrs.  Vansittart  is  altogether  singular  in  introducing  the  legendary 
name  of  the  thief  from  the  Gospel  of  Nicodemus  (Ante-Nicene  Library, 
xvi,  187) — 

"A  pitying  ear  in  mercy  lend 
As  erst  to  Dismas  Thou  didst  bend 
And  hope  to  Magdalen  extend." 

Lord  Roscommon  has  also  what  I  believe  to  be  a  unique  version — 


NOTES  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  569 

"Thou  who  wert  moved  with  Mary's  grief, 
And  by  absolving  of  the  thief 
Hast  given  me  hope,  now  give  relief. ' ' 

Line  1. — Mary,  50;  Magdalene,  10;  Mary  Magdalene,  1;  Magda- 
lene, (four  syllables1),  1 ;  Mary  of  the  garden  (John  19  : 
41),  1  ;  adulteress,  1  ;  harlot  (an  American  variation  of 
Dr.  Irons),  1  ;  sinner,  3  ;  her  that  sinned,  frail  one,  lost 
one,  sinner  grieving,  woman  pleading,  woman  crying. 

Line  ii. — Thief,  61;  robber,  13  ;  malefactor,  1;  heaven,  9  ;  paradise,  1. 

Line  Hi. — (Hope)  hast  given,  etc.,  36;  give,  etc.  (a  prayer),  6. 

14.   Preces  meae  non  sunt  dignae ; 
Sed  Tu,  bonus,  fac  benigne, 
Ne  perenni  cremer  igne. 

There  is  here  another  various  reading  :  the  Hammerlein  Codex 
has  in  the  second  line  donas,  which  Daniel  prefers  ("  Placet  Haem- 
merlini  lectio  "),  but  I  find  that  hardly  any  translators  have  taken  it 
except  William  Drummond  of  Hawthornden — 

"My  prayers  imperfect  are  and  weak, 
But  worthy  of  Thy  grace  them  make, 
And  save  me  from  hell's  burning  lake." 

The  translation  of  the  first  line  is  usually  fairly  literal,  though,  of 
course,  some  writers  have  added  another  word  to  prayers,  as  Dr. 
Macgill — 

"  Vows  and  prayers  can  save  me  never, 
Grace  alone  can  me  deliver 
From  the  fire  that  burns  for  ever. ' ' 

or  an  American  calling  himself  Somniator — 

1  This  syllabification,  by  the  way,  is  quite  wrong.  The  feminine  nature  of  the 
word  gives  it  a  false  appearance  of  correctness  ;  but,  in  fact,  the  e  is  not  the  long  e 
of  the  Greek,  but  the  mere  silent  terminal  of  the  English,  nor  to  be  sounded  any 
more  than  in  the  stock  cases  of  Urbane,  and  the  Libertines,  and  the  Nicolaitanes. 
If  it  is  to  be  considered  Greek,  the  form  Maria  also  should  be  used  ;  to  make  half  the 
name  English  and  half  Greek  is  an  incongruity.  However,  good  writers  have  fallen 
into  such  an  error  as  this  ;  cf.  Byron — 

"  Thus  Nature  played  with  the  stalactites, 
And  built  herself  a  chapel  of  the  seas." 

The  Island,  t'v.  7. 


570  THE  DOLPHIN. 

' '  All  worthless  are  ray  prayers  and  tears, 
But  be  Thou  greater  than  my  fears, 
Lest  flame  consume  my  endless  years  ;" 

or  substituted  one  for  it,  as  Father  Aylward  cry — 

"  Worthless  though  my  feeble  cry, 
Help  me,  gracious  Lord,  or  I 
Burn  in  flames  that  never  die, ' ' 

or  some  others  petition,  being  particularly  useful  in  its  capacity  of  a 
rhyme  for  perdition.  Dr.  Robertson's  line  is,  Worthless  all  my  tears 
and  turning;  which  last  word  thus  used  alone  without  anything  to 
define  or  explain  it,  is  hardly  intelligible — but  this  had  to  rhyme  with 
burning  /    Others  have  expanded  the  idea,  as  Archdeacon  Rowan — 

* '  Unworthy  Thee  my  purest  prayer, 
Yet,  gracious  Lord,  Thy  servant  spare, 
Doomed  else  eternal  fire  to  share. ' ' 

The  second  line  is  well  turned  by  Dr.  Coles  thus — 

' '  My  prayers  are  worthless,  well  I  know, 
But,  good,  do  Thou  Thy  goodness  shew, 
And  save  me  from  impending  woe," 

which  verse,  if  unending  were  read  for  impending,  might  be  among  the 
best  renderings.  One  or  two  others  also  have  like  expressions,  as 
Mrs.  Charles — 

"All  unworthy  is  my  prayer, 

Gracious  One,  be  gracious  there, 

From  the  quenchless  fire  O  spare." — 

but  on  the  whole  the  lines  representing  this  second  one  are  often 
somewhat  indefinite. 

In  the  third  line  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the  use  of  the  word 
burn  should  be  avoided,  I  mean  as  employed  of  the  passive  agent ;  it 
seems  to  have  something  about  it  of  an  undignified  sound  rather 
difficult  to  explain,  and  it  will  be  remembered  that  the  compilers  of 
Hymns  Ancient  and  Modern  have  altered  it  in  Father  Caswall's  well- 
known  translation  of  St.  Francis  Xavier — 

"My  God,  I  love  Thee,  not  because 
I  hope  for  heaven  thereby, 
Nor  because  they  who  love  Thee  not 
Must  burn  eternally. ' ' 


NOTES  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  S7l 

And  perhaps  one  of  the  best  ways  of  turning  the  verse,  both  so  as  to 
avoid  this  word  and  for  other  reasons,  is  something  thus — 

"  My  prayers  are  all  unworthy  Thee, 
Yet  of  Thy  goodness  favor  me, 
Lest  endless  fire  my  portion  be, ' ' 

— H.  J.  Macdonald. 
or  thus — 

"Though  my  prayers  deserve  no  hire, 
Yet,  good  Lord,  grant  my  desire, 
I  may  'scape  eternal  fire." 

— James  Dymock. 

The  ten-syllable  triplet  of  the  Sacred  Heart,  1880,  is  thus,  alluding 
to  Mary  Magdalene's  prayer — 

"Not  that  my  prayers  with  Thee  like  power  may  claim, 
But  that  Thy  love  and  pity  are  the  same 
To  save  us  from  the  everlasting  flame." 

The  Lamp  of  1856  has  a  verse  containing  a  curious  line — 

'  *  Through  Thee  my  thoughts  to  heaven  aspire  ; 
Thy  mercy  can  withstand  Thine  ire, 
And  save  me  from  avenging  fire." 

Mr.  Simms'  line  is  also  rather  singular,  I  pray,  yet  prayer  is  not  my 
plea.     The  Earl  of  Crawford  introduces  the  word  Gehenna — 

"Worthless  are  my  prayers,  I  know, 
Yet  in  mercy  spare  me,  so 
Shall  I  'scape  Gehenna's  woe," 

and  one  other  singularity  which  may  be  noted  is  that  of  a  Roman 
Catholic  writer  who  plainly  refers  the  ignis,  perennis  though  it  be,  to 
purgatory — 

"Worthless  though  my  prayers,  benignly 
Save  me  by  Thy  grace,  divinely 
Stretched  midst  purging  fires  supinely. ' ' 

— Charles  Kent. 

Line  i. — Prayer  or  prayers,  67  ;  petition,  3  ;  cry,  2  ;  supplication, 
pleading.  Worthless,  28;  unworthy,  12;  vain,  2;  poor, 
2  •  weak,  unavailing,  imperfect,  valueless. 


572  THE  DOLPHIN. 

Line  ii. — Good,  5  ;  gracious,  4  ;  benign,  2  ;  mild,  dear. 

Line  tit.—  Fire   or  fires,  23;  flame  or  flames,  22;  hell,  5;  woe,  4; 

perdition,  3;  pain,  Gehenna.     Endless,    18;  eternal,  17; 

unending,   6  ;    for  ever,   6  ;    undying,   3  ;    quenchless,  3  ; 

deathless,  2  ;  everlasting,  2  ;  lasting,  1 .     Burning,  1 1 . 

15.   Inter  oves  locum  praesta, 
Et  ab  haedis  me  sequestra, 
Statuens  in  parte  dextra. 

To  take  the  words  as  they  stand  before  us,  one  would  think  that 
in  the  face  of  the  text  "  He  shall  set  the  sheep  on  the  right  hand,  but 
the  goats  on  the  left, ' '  there  would  be  no  hesitation  in  translating  the 
verse  literally.  Yet  for  some  strange  reason  not  a  few  writers  seem 
loath  to  use  the  word  goats  even  where  they  use  that  sheep.  They 
might  have  had  the  authority  of  Ben  Jonson's  "Elegy  on  Lady 
Digby"— 

"  Indeed  she  is  not  dead,  but  laid  to  sleep 
In  earth  till  the  last  trump  awake  the  sheep 
And  goats  together,  whither  they  must  come 
To  hear  their  Judge  and  His  eternal  doom." 

Two  writers,  on  the  other  hand,  have  used  goats  without  sheep,  and 
two  for  sheep  have  substituted  lambs  ;  much  as  Wiclif  of  old,  perhaps 
it  may  be  said,  substituted  kids  for  goats.  Another  turning  not  un- 
common is  to  make  the  necessary  distinction  by  contrasting  the  words 
flock  and  herd,  usually  of  course  with  some  epithet,  though  there  is 
one  case  where  they  are  used  alone,  thus — 

"Midst  the  flock  O  make  my  station, 
From  the  herd  in  separation  ; 
At  Thy  right  be  my  vocation." 

— Dr.  Krauth,  Philadelphia. 

One  writer  has  the  following  line,  as  if  sheep  never  had  horns  (this, 
however,  is  a  little  hypercritical,  for  there  is  no  doubt  that  most  men's 
first  idea  of  a  sheep  is  of  a  hornless  beast) — 

"Shepherd,  midst  thy  flock  enfold  me, 
Nor  with  horned  herd  behold  me, 
Having  on  Thy  right  enrolled  me." 

This  is  by  Mr.  Charles  Kent.  One  or  two  other  singularities  are 
these — 


NOTES  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAEr  573 

' ' '  Mongst  the  sheep  grant  me  a  stand, 
Drive  me  from  the  goats'  cursed  band, 
Placing  me  on  Thy  right-hand." 

— Patrick  Carey. 

« 'Mid  Thy  sheep  be  my  place  given, 
Far  the  goats  from  me  be  driven, 
At  Thy  right-hand  fixed  in  heaven." 

— W.  R.  Williams. 

where  the  expression,  strangely  enough,  is  the  exact  reverse  of  Carey's. 
Archbishop  Trench  well  shows  the  simple  style  which  here,  as 
always,  should  be  preferred — 

"  'Mid  Thy  sheep  my  place  command 
From  the  goats  far  off  to  stand  ; 
Set  me,  Lord,  at  Thy  right-hand. ' ' 

Line  i. — Sheep  and  goats,  50  ;  sheep  (alone),  7  ;  Thy  sheep,  37  ; 
lambs,  2  ;  right-hand  flock,  1  ;  the  flock,  1  ;  Thy  flock,  1 ; 
Thy  friends,  1;  chosen  (subst.),  1;  chosen  (adj.),  3; 
blessed  (adj.),  2  ;  blessed  (subst.),  1  ;  favored,  holy,  elected. 

Line  ii. — Goats  (alone),  3;  he-goats,  1;  goat-like  race,  1  ;  "  goat- 
ish ' '  band,  2  ;  unwashed  and  sordid,  1  ;  unhallowed  band, 
unholy  band,  brutish  band,  convicted  band,  ungodly  band, 
condemned  band,  sinful  band  ;  apostate  race,  wicked  race  ; 
accursed  line;  guilty  nation;  cursed  (subst.),  vile,  dark, 
foul,  lost,  evil. 

Line  Hi. — Right-hand,  45;  right-side,  2;  right  (alone),  15;  Thy 
side. 

16.   Confutatis  maledictis, 

Flammis  acribus  addictis  ; 
Voca  me,  cum  benedictis. 

In  the  versions  of  Sylvester  and  Drummond,  and  in  others  beside^ 
the  word  confutatis  is  left  untranslated.  This  is  a  piece  of  careless- 
ness which  the  translators  probably  allowed  themselves  from  failing  to 
perceive  its  full  force ;  this  I  imagine  to  be  not  simply  that  the  cursed 
are  put  aside,  but  that  they  are  put  down  by  words — in  short,  "con- 
futed ; ' '  that  is  to  say,  that  the  divine  answer,  ' '  Inasmuch  as  ye  did 
it  not,  etc.,"  was  in  Thomas  of  Celano's  mind.     It  would  not  be  easy 


574  THE  DOLPHIN. 

to  express  this  fully  in  English,  unless  by  the  use  of  this  very  word 
confuted;  few  if  any  translators  have  adopted  it  in  literal  versions, 
except  in  one  somewhat  unmeaning  line  which  I  have  seen,  When 
hard  speeches  are  confuted.  Nor  indeed  is  it  necessary  to  do  so  ;  but 
at  least  the  word,  having  a  fuller  meaning  than  many  writers  seem  to 
have  found  upon  the  surface,  must  not  be  totally  omitted. 

A  good  translation  is  this,  though  hardly  simple  enough  by  reason 
of  the  duplication  of  epithets  on  the  flame — 

' '  When  the  accurst  are  put  to  shame, 
Banished  to  fierce  devouring  flame, 
Then  with  Thy  blessed  call  my  name. ' ' 

— R.  M'Corkle. 

Line  i. — Accursed  or  cursed,  $$  '■>  wicked,  8  ;  lost,  7  ;  damned,  3  ; 
condemned,  3  ;  doomed,  2  ;  reprobate,  2  ;  foes,  2  ;  vile, 
guilty,  sinners,  scorners. 

Line  ii. — Flame  or  flames,  40  ;  fire,  fiery,  9  ;  hell,  5  ;  burning,  3  ; 
torment,  tormenting,  5  ;  devouring,  6  ;  fierce,  6  ;  penal,  2  ; 
direful,  scorching,  piercing,  bitter,  keen;  eternal,  ever- 
lasting, never-ending,  never-dying,  quenchless. 

Line  Hi. — Blessed  or  blest,  34  ;  saints,  9  ;  child,  children,  2  ;  elect, 
chosen,  ransomed,  saved,  redeemed. 

17.   Oro,  supplex  et  acclinis, 
Cor  contritum  quasi  cinis, 
Gere  curam  mei  finis. 

This  last  verse  of  the  Hymn  seems  on  the  whole  to  have  tried 
translators  as  much  as  any ;  not  that  there  is  any  difficulty  in  the 
actual  rendering  of  the  words,  for  the  two  first  lines  at  any  rate  are 
extremely  clear,  and  there  is  hardly  a  possibility  of  mistake  ;  but  it 
seems  not  to  have  been  found  easy  to  put  the  simple  and  pathetic 
Latin  into  equally  pathetic  and  simple  English.  There  are  indeed 
few  versions  to  be  found  at  the  same  time  literal,  simple,  and  correct — 
for  there  has  been  a  very  common  failure,  which  will  be  mentioned 
directly,  to  see  the  full  meaning  of  the  last  line.  One  of  the  best  is 
Isaac  Williams — 

"  Suppliant,  fallen,  low  I  bend, 
My  bruised  heart  to  ashes  rend, 
Care  Thou,  Lord,  for  my  last  end  ; ' ' 


NOTES  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAEr  575 

the  mistake  is  in  the  confusion  of  metaphor  in  the  second  line — you 
cannot  turn  a  thing  into  ashes  by  rending  it ;  what  the  original  does 
is  to  compare  the  heart  to  ashes,  but  not  to  state  how  it  may  be 
imagined  to  have  become  such. 

With  regard  to  that  word  cinis  itself,  ashes,  as  it  is  the  most  com- 
mon, so  it  is  the  best  English  ;  Mr.  Mackellar  adds  the  epithet  gray  ; 
clay  is  not  applicable,  and  cinders,  though  used  by  two  or  three,  and 
even  by  Father  Caswall,  has  a  ludicrous  sound,  and  besides  is  incor- 
rect j  cinis  is  not  a  cinder  or  cinders.  Nor  is  it  beneath  our  dignity 
to  remember  that  though  coal  was  of  course  not  unknown  when 
Thomas  of  Celano  wrote,  yet  in  all  probability  wood-ashes  were  in  his 
mind,  to  which  as  far  as  I  know  the  word  cinders  is  never  applied. 
Again,  how  far  more  dignified  a  simile  to  compare  the  contrite  heart, 
the  worn-down  heart,  to  the  fine  powder  of  wood-ashes,  than  as  Father 
Caswall  seems  to  do,  to  the  rough,  hard  cinder  of  coal !  Acclinis  I 
take  to  be  not  strictly  speaking  prostrate,  as  some  have  turned  it ; 
bending,  bowing,  kneeling,  all  of  which  are  common  enough,  are  nearer 
to  the  true  meaning. 

The  mistake  just  mentioned  which  many  translators  have  made  in 
the  last  line  is  in  limiting  the  meaning  of  finis  to  that  which  we  com- 
monly call  death — that  is,  the  separation  of  soul  and  body.  Though 
this  is  no  doubt  included,  finis  is  the  end  in  the  widest  sense,  i.e.,  the 
doom  of  the  soul  at  the  Day  of  Judgment,  which  forms  the  whole 
subject  of  the  Hymn. 

Line  i. — Suppliant,  20  ;  prostrate,  etc.,  15  ;  low  or  lowly,  15  ;  bend, 
etc.,    16;  bow,  etc.,  6;  kneel,  etc.,  4;  downcast,  prone. 

Line  ii. — Contrite,  etc.,  22;  crushed,  n;  bruised,  3;  broken,  3; 
scorched,  dry;  ashes,  22  ;  dust,  15  ;  cinders,  3;  clay,  2  ; 
embers,  1. 

Line  Hi. — End,  etc.,  23  ;  death,  etc.,  16. 

18.   Lacrimosa  dies  ilia, 
Qua  resurget  ex  favilla, 
Judicandus  homo  reus ; 
Huic  ergo  parce,  Deus  : 
Pie  Jesu,  Domine, 
Dona  eis  Requiem. 

It  has  already  been  shown  that  this  so-called  eighteenth  verse  is 
probably  not  part  of  the  original   Hymn,  and  thus  some  translators 


576  THE  DOLPHIN. 

have  omitted  it  altogether,  though  on  the  other  hand  more  than  might 
be  expected  have  inserted  it.  But  more  freedom  has  been  taken  with 
it  than  with  any  other  part,  for  the  original  metre  of  couplets  has 
often  been  altered  into  |the  triplets  of  the  Hymn's  main  body ;  it  is 
perhaps  a  mistake  to  do  this,  for  the  change  of  metre  is  not  without 
its  beauty,  and  to  give  this  up  without  a  reason  seems  useless — musical 
considerations  may  probably  in  some  cases  have  been  the  reason. 

It  is  a  want  of  exactness  not  to  notice  that  the  favilla  of  this 
eighteenth  verse  is  of  course  the  favilla  of  the  first ;  Mr.  Copeland's 
version  brings  this  out  very  clearly,  thus — 

(First  verse.) 

"  Day  of  doom,  that  day  of  ire  ; 
Earth  shall  sink  in  crumbling  fire, 

(Last  verse.) 

Day  of  tears,  that  day  of  ire, 

Which  shall  from  the  crumbling  fire 

.  > » 
•  •  .  .  .  , 

but  several  writers  have  passed  it  over,  and  instead  of  earth1 s  ashes 
have  made  the  favilla  to  be  mari 's  ashes,  or  modified  their  own  idea 
into  that  of  a  grave  or  tomb,  or  even  given  it  some  "  slight  poetical 
amplification,"  as  the  late  Dr.  Dykes  once  euphemistically  described 
wordiness,  in  some  such  way  as  this — 

1  i  O  that  day  of  lamentation 
When  from  his  dark  habitation 
Man  shall  rise  to  hear  his  sentence  ; 
Spare  him,  God,  on  his  repentance. ' ' 

The  Requiem,  as  it  is  sometimes  called  par  excellence,  or  the  Sus- 
pirium,  as  Daniel  names  the  last  two  lines,  is  what  perhaps  may  be 
termed  the  most  crucial  point  in  the  whole  Hymn.  Containing  as  it 
does,  a  distinct  "  prayer  for  the  dead,"  its  translation  instantly  shews 
its  translator's  bias.  One  Roman  Catholic  has,  as  in  a  former  verse, 
and  with  even  less  authority,  gone  out  of  his  way  to  introduce  pur- 
gatory— 

"Spare  me,  Lord,  Thy  mercy  shewing, 
Jesus,  Thy  sweet  rest  bestowing 
On  them  'mid  the  clean  flame  glowing." 


NOTES  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  S77 

And  (a  lighter  comment)  the  professional  ideas  of  Mr.  Epes  Sargent, 
the  American  barrister-poet,  have  been  at  the  last  too  much  for  him, 
causing  him  to  write 2 — 

"When,  that  day  of  tears  impending, 
From  his  ashes  man  ascending 
At  Thy  bar  shall  be  attendant, 
Spare  him,  God,  spare  the  defendant." 

The  best  translation  that  I  have  found  is  both  Roman  Catholic  and 
American,  from  the  Catholic  Manual,  N.  Y.,  1870,  where  the  metre 
is  changed  to  a  ten-syllable  line,  thus — 

1 '  O  bounteous  Jesus,  Lord  for  ever  blest, 
Give  faithful  souls  departed  endless  rest. ' ' 

Mr.  Simms'  version  on  the  other  hand  is  a  ^-syllable  triplet — 

"Lord  Jesus,  to  Thy  knee 
In  life  and  death  we  flee ; 
Vouchsafe  us  rest  in  Thee, ' ' 

and  it  is  the  solitary  instance  of  a  return  to  triplets   after  the  use  of 
couplets  in  agreement  with  the  original  in  the  first  part  of  the  verse. 
Mr.  Hay  in  his  paraphrase  has  kept  the  original  Latin  in  the  last 
line,  thus — 

"O  that  day  of  lamentation, 
When  in  sudden  consternation 
All  the  doomed  shall  hide  their  face  ; 
Spare  them,  spare  them,  God  of  grace  ; 
Lord,  we  bend  to  Thee  for  them, 
Do?ia  eis  requiem  !  ' ' 

The  word  requiem  alone  is  also  used  by  the  Catholic  Choralist,  1842, 
and  Mr.  Thomas,  1867.  For  printing  Dona  eos  requie  to  preserve 
the  rhyme — as  it  were  "  Gift  them  with  rest  " — I  can,  though  I  have 
once  seen  it  done,  find  no  authority. 

2  In  the  same  way  Dr.  Coles  the  physician  has  written — 

"  When  I  enter  death's  dark  portal, 
Feebly  beats  ihe  pulse  aortal." 


578  THE  DOLPHIN. 

COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE." 
Stanzas  XI— XVIII. 

XI.  XL 

Juste  Judex  ultionis,  Just  Judge  of  vengeance, 

Donum  fac  remissionis  Grant  the  gift  of  pardon 

Ante  diem  rationis.  Ere  the  day  of  accounting. 

XII.  XII. 
Ingemisco  tanquam  reus,  I  groan  like  one  condemned  ; 
Culpa  rubet  vultus  meus  :  My  face  reddens  with  guilt ; 
Supplicanti  parce,  Deus.  The  suppliant  spare,  O  God. 

XIII.  XIII. 

Qui  Mariam  absolvisti  Who  didst  absolve  Mary, 

Et  latronem  exaudisti,  Who  didst  hearken  to  the  thief, 

Mihi  quoque  spem  dedisti.  To  me  also  Thou  gavest  hope. 

Mr.  Warren  interprets  the  line  Juste  Judex  ultionis :  "  Just 
Judge  of  the  punishment,  that  is,  I  suppose,  of  the  proportioning 
of  it  to  a  man's  deeds."  The  word  ultio  occurs  in  the  Vulgate : 
"  Deus  ultionum  Dominus,  Deus  ultionem  libere  egit.  Exaltare 
qui  judicas  terram  "  ("  The  Lord  is  the  God  to  whom  revenge 
belongeth ;  the  God  of  revenge  hath  acted  freely.  Lift  up  Thy- 
self, thou  That  judgest  the  earth  ")}  There  is  no  need  of  refining 
with  extreme  precision  ;  for  the  sense  of  the  verse  seems  to  be  that 
of  Deuteronomy  (32  :  35), "  Mea  est  ultio,  et  ego  retribuam  in  tem- 
pore "  ("  Revenge  is  Mine,  and  I  will  repay  in  due  time  "). 

That  reus  should  be  rendered  condemned  rather  than  accused 
appears  to  be  demanded  by  the  verse  following : — 

Culpa  rubet  vultus  meus, 

in  which  the  "  defendant  "  (or  "  accused  ")  admits  the  charge  and 
is  virtually  "  condemned  "  already.  Besides,  a  mere  "  accusation  " 
should  not  cause  apprehensive  groanings  such  as  the  poet  pic- 
tures. 

The  line 

Qui  Mariam  absolvisti 

has  been  changed  into 

Peccatricem  absolvisti, 

perhaps  for  the  reason  that  St.  Luke  does  not  name  the  peccatrix 
who  anointed  the  feet  of  our  Lord. 
1  Ps.  93  :  1,  21. 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "D/ES  IRAE."  579 

Lord  Roscommon's  version  of  this  stanza : — 

Thou  who  wert  moved  by  Mary's  grief, 

And  by  absolving  of  the  thief 

Hast  given  me  hope,  now  give  relief! 

includes  the  technical  word  "  absolving  "  used  so  frequently  and 
in  this  unique  sense  by  Catholics.  In  the  second  stanza,  Ros- 
common renders  the  third  verse  — 

Shall  have  few  venial  faults  to  find. 

Mr.  Orby  Shipley  contended  in  the  Dublin  Review  (January, 
1883,  and  October,  1884)  that  the  version  ascribed  to  Roscom- 
mon was  not  improbably  Dryden's  in  reality.  He  thinks  that  at 
least  an  "indirect  argument"  might  be  based  on  the  words 
"venial"  and  "absolving"  occurring,  as  we  have  just  seen,  in 
this  version.  "  A  further  indirect  argument  might  be  raised  for  a 
non-Protestant  origin  of  the  version,  from  its  Catholic  phraseology, 
which  will  be  apparent  on  reading,  amongst  other  triplets,  the 
second  and  thirteenth,  in  which  the  author  speaks  of  the  '  venial ' 
faults  of  mankind,  and  of  the  '  absolving  of  the  thief.'  With  the 
exception  of  two  Protestant  translators,  who  use  the  term 
1  shriven,'  perhaps  none  other  non-Catholic  has  employed  the  later 
technical  phraseology.  No  one,  probably,  besides  the  author,  has 
used  the  former  in  his  rendering  of  Dies  Irae.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  is  only  fair  to  say  that  the  concluding  stanza  of  the  version 
ascribed  to  Roscommon  has  not  a  Catholic  tone  about  its  render- 
ing. '  Let  guilty  man  compassion  find '  are  its  last  words.  These, 
of  course,  are  no  equivalent,  either  to  the  original  Dona  eis 
requiem,  or  to  the  other  early  translations — e.g.,  *  Give  rest  to  all 
departed  souls  '  (1657),  or,  '  Eternal  rest  to  them  afford'  (1687). 
In  fact,  the  final  couplet  has  been  omitted."  The  other  arguments 
by  which  Mr.  Shipley  contends  for  the  Dryden  authorship  need 
not  detain  us  here.  They  are  acutely  reasoned  out  and  clearly 
set  forth.  Roscommon  died  in  1684;  and  one  of  the  arguments 
made  by  Mr.  Shipley  must  be  revised,  when  he  declares  that  the 
version  first  appeared  in  a  volume  whose  preface  was  written  in 
17 17,  but  whose  title-page  bears  the  date  1721  ;  for  the  version 
appeared  in  Miscellanea  Sacra  in  1696.  The  discussion  is  very 
interesting  and  the  contention  is  very  likely  a  just  one.     In  the 


580 


THE  DOLPHIN. 


Preface  of  his  Annus  Sanctus  (1884)  Mr.  Shipley  repeats  his  view- 
that  the  version  of  Dies  Irae  was  in  all  probability  wrongly 
attributed  to  Lord  Roscommon. 


XIV. 
Preces  meae  non  sunt  dignae  ; 
Sed  tu  bonus  fac  benigne 
Ne  perenni  cremer  igne. 

XV. 

Inter  oves  locum  praesta, 
Et  ab  hoedis  me  sequestra, 
Statuens  in  parte  dextra. 

XVI. 

Confutatis  maledictis, 
Flammis  acribus  addictis, 
Voca  me  cum  benedictis. 

XVII. 
Oro  supplex  et  acclinis, 
Cor  contritum  quasi  cinis, 
Gere  curam  mei  finis. 


XIV. 
Unworthy  are  my  prayers  : 
But  do  Thou  benignly  grant  that 
I  bum  not  in  everlasting  fire. 

XV. 

Amid  Thy  sheep  appoint  me  a  place, 
And  separate  me  from  the  goats, 
Placing  me  at  Thy  right-hand. 

XVI. 

The  accursed  having  been  silenced 
And  given  over  to  the  bitter  flames, 
Call  me  with  the  blessed. 

XVII. 

Kneeling  and  prostrated  I  pray, 
With  heart  broken  as  it  were  ashes, 
Guard  Thou  my  end. 


The  fifteenth  stanza  borrows  its  thought  and  phrase  from  our 
Lord's  description  (Matt.  25  :  32-34):  "And  all  nations  shall  be 
gathered  together  before  him,  and  he  shall  separate  them  one 
from  another,  as  the  shepherd  separateth  the  sheep  from  the 
goats :  And  he  shall  set  the  sheep  on  his  right  hand,  but  the 
goats  on  his  left.  Then  shall  the  king  say  to  them  that  shall  be 
on  his  right-hand :  "  Come  ye  blessed  of  my  Father.  .  .  ." 
etc. 

Versions  that  render  contritum  by  contrite  do  not  bring  out 
sufficiently  the  strong  figure  in  the  word  itself.  Contritus  means, 
of  course,  broken  into  small  pieces ;  but  the  poet  adds  to  the 
figure  the  idea  of  "  reducing  to  ashes,"  or  impalpable  particles — 
"  utterly  crushed." 

Apropos  of  this  last  stanza,  it  may  be  permissible  to  repeat 
the  incident  related  by  Johnson  of  the  last  moments  of  Roscom- 
mon, even  though  Johnson's  information  came  to  him  at  third  or 
fourth  hand :  "  At  the  moment  in  which  he  expired,  he  uttered, 
with  an  energy  of  voice  that  expressed  the  most  fervent  devotion, 
two  lines  of  his  own  version  of  Dies  Irae : — 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  58 1 

'  My  God,  my  Father,  and  my  Friend, 
Do  not  forsake  me  in  my  end.'  " 

Crashaw's    exquisite    version  was  doubtless  the  inspiration  for 
Roscommon  : — 

"  0  hear  a  suppliant  heart  all  crushed 
And  crumbled  into  contrite  dust  ! 
My  hope,  my  fear — my  Judge,  my  Friend  ! 
Take  charge  of  me  and  of  my  end !' ' 

With  this  seventeenth  stanza  ends  the  triplet  construction  of 
the  poem,  if  not,  indeed,  the  poem  itself  as  originally  written. 
This  is  therefore  an  appropriate  place  for  considering  the  general 
features  of  the  Dies  Irae, — its  carefully  progressive  argument,  its 
Scriptural  allusiveness,  its  vivid  descriptiveness  in  the  first  six 
stanzas,  and  its  lyric  intensity  in  the  remaining  stanzas.  With  re- 
spect to  the  argument  of  the  Hymn,  we  can  scarcely  do  better 
than  transfer  to  this  page  the  words  of  Orby  Shipley.2 

"The  popularity  and  appreciation  of  Dies  Irae,  and  the  reasons 
of  both  with  simple  and  learned  alike,  can  only,  however,  be  intelli- 
gently estimated  when,  leaving  the  accidental  form  in  which  this 
divine  hymn  and  poem  is  cast,  we  carefully  examine  its  substance.  Of 
course  the  mere  perusal  of  it,  or  even  a  casual  attention  to  its  recita- 
tion, impresses  the  reader  or  listener  with  an  undefined  but  real  sense 
of  greatness  and  power.  He  feels  himself  in  the  presence  of  a  noble 
and  masterly  production.  But,  when  the  sequence  is  mentally  picked 
to  pieces,  when  each  element  is  weighed,  when  the  union  and  inter- 
dependence, and  oftentimes  the  logical  following  of  each  succeeding 
portion,  is  tested — then  the  consummate  art  of  the  craftsman  is  dis- 
closed. The  very  simplicity  of  its  form  becomes  a  mask  for  the  intri- 
cate elaborateness  of  its  conception  and  development.  Its  story,  the 
incidents,  the  reflections,  their  rhythm,  flow  from  source  onward  to 
conclusion  with  unruffled  and  unbroken  continuity.  But  this  result 
has  been  attained  only  by  the  exercise  of  extremest  skill.  In  the  prose 
for  the  dead  there  is  no  check,  no  parenthesis,  no  wandering  from  the 
point,  no  retrogression  or  looking  backward.  It  begins  with  the  end 
of  life,  it  ends  with  the -beginning  of  eternity.  Between  these  limits, 
the  legend,  so  to  say,  is  self-evolved,  self-contained.  The  great 
mediaeval  poem  of  the  day  of  doom  is  less  a  series  of  independent 
pictures  or    detached    studies    than  one  long   panorama,   as  it  were, 

2  Dublin  Review,  1883,  p.  379. 


582  THE  DOLPHIN. 

of  some  mighty  quick-flowing  river  and  its  scenery 
Its  imagery  and  scenes,  its  facts  and  events,  its  words  and  thoughts,  its 
prayers  and  ejaculations,  its  mental  records,  conscience-searching 
questions  and  intellectual  memories,  as  naturally  and  unaffectedly  suc- 
ceed each  other,  without  a  forced  cohesion  or  inharmonious  break,  as 
the  banks,  and  towns,  and  hills,  and  forests,  and  islands,  and  other 
natural  features  of  a  river  scene,  in  a  series  from  the  lens  of  a  magic 
lantern  of  dissolving  views. ' ' 

In  the  brief  space  of  the  first  six  stanzas,  the  prophetic  pictur- 
ing of  the  Last  Judgment  is  given.  A  few  bold  lines  on  a  narrow- 
canvas  (for  eighteen  lines  must  be  considered  as  the  briefest  possi- 
ble limits  within  which  to  paint  such  a  picture)  bring  the  scene  of 
the  consummation  of  the  world  before  us  quite  as  vividly  as  the 
masterpieces  of  painting  on  this  subject,  with  their  multitudinous 
figures  crowded  together  even  within  amplest  limits  of  space.  The 
first  stanza  announces  the  theme  (in  the  first  line),  the  catastrophe 
(in  the  second),  and  the  prophetic  witness  thereto,  both  of  the 
Hebrew  and  of  the  pagan  world  (in  the  third  line).  It  is  a  sum- 
mary, majestic  and  marvellous,  of  prophecy  and  fulfilment, 
crystallized  within  three  short  lines — just  twenty-four  syllables — 
of  rhymed  Latin  verse.  It  is  a  text,  clear  and  compact,  for  what 
follows.  The  second  stanza  then  shows  us  mankind  "  withering 
away  for  fear  and  expectation,"  as  the  Great  Judge  appears 
Cuncta  stride  discussurus, — to  sift  everything  "  like  as  corn  is  sifted 
in  a  sieve  "  (Amos  9 :  9).  This  coming  of  the  Judge,  to  weigh 
everything  with  nicest  balance,  naturally  suggests  the  summoning 
of  mankind  before  that  Great  Assize — Death  and  Hell  must  give 
up  their  dead,  and  the  Sea  must  give  up  the  dead  that  are  in  it — 
and  the  next  stanza  echoes  for  us,  in  its  marvellous  wedding  of 
sound  to  sense,  the  "trump  of  God"  resounding  through  all  the 
sepulchres  of  earth  and  summoning  all  mankind  before  the 
Throne  ("  And  I  saw  a  great  white  throne  .  .  .  and  the  dead 
both  great  and  small,  standing  in  sight  of  the  throne." — Apoc. 
20 :  11,12).  The  next  stanza  appropriately  pictures  the  stupefac- 
tion of  Death  and  Nature  at  seeing  the  innumerable  dead  whose 
final  chapter  had  seemed,  in  the  long  tale  of  centuries  which  had 
passed  over  them  without  disturbing  their  ancient  rest,  to  have 
been  completely  written,  rising  from  countless  graves  and  hurry- 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  583 

ing  to  judgment.  There  at  length  they  are  all  assembled,  "both 
great  and  small  "  ;  and  the  next  stanza  shows  us  the  Judge  seated 
in  terrific  majesty,  presiding  over  all  the  generations  of  men,  pre- 
pared to  search  into  their  most  hidden  thoughts  and  to  leave 
unavenged  not  even  a  single  "  idle  word  that  men  shall  speak." 
And  therefore,  in  the  next  stanza,  appears  the  record  of  all  our 
thoughts,  words,  deeds — the  liber  scriptus — the  "  book  of  life  "  ot 
the  Apocalypse,  holding  everything  on  which  judgment  is  to  be 
passed.  The  first  part  of  the  poem  is  finished — the  mise  en  scene 
has  been  arranged — and  the  agony  of  one  individual  soul  begins. 
What,  indeed,  shall  it  find  to  say  at  that  dreadful  judgment? 
When,  as  St.  Peter  says,  "  scarce  the  just  shall  be  saved,"  what 
advocate  shall  it  entreat  to  take  up  its  cause  and  plead  for  it  ? 
This  seventh  stanza  forms  the  bridge  between  the  epic  and  the 
lyric  in  the  Hymn ;  it  connects,  with  the  scene  painted  in  the  first 
six  stanzas,  the  present  cry  of  the  soul  that  He  who  shall  then 
appear  as  a  rigorously  just  Judge  shall  now  prove  Himself  a 
tender  and  forgiving  Saviour.  The  eighth  stanza  accordingly 
presents  us  with  this  twofold  character  of  Christ — the  "  Rex 
tremendae  majestatis  "  in  the  Last  Judgment,  the  "  Fons  pietatis  " 
of  the  present  life ;  and  it  does  not  present  us  with  this  two  fold 
character  in  any  confused  way,  but  with  almost  scholastic  precision 
refers  in  the  first  line  to  the  awful  majesty  of  that  King  (thus 
connecting  Him  with  the  Judgment  which  has  just  been  pictured) 
and  in  the  third  line  to  the  tender  pity  of  the  Saviour  (which  is 
to  be  the  basis  of  the  appeal  that  follows).  The  argument  of  the 
Hymn  is  thus  evolved  with  exquisite  carefulness,  the  transitions 
being  made  with  logical  facility  as  well  as  with  rhetorical  felicity. 
The  following  six  stanzas  develop  the  thought  of  Christ's  mercy ; 
and  here  again  we  can  perceive  the  symmetrical  and  logical 
development  of  the  argument.  They  comprise,  namely,  two 
divisions  of  three  stanzas  each,  the  first  division  dealing  with  the 
first  basis  on  which  an  appeal  may  rest, — the  labors  and  sufferings 
of  Christ ;  the  second  division  dealing  with  the  second  basis, — 
the  repentance  of  the  sinner ;  each  division  consisting,  moreover, 
of  two  stanzas  followed  by  a  stanza  containing  an  appropriate 
prayer.  Thus,  the  first  division  begins  with  Recordare,  Jesu  pie, 
and  refers  to  the  love  shown  by  Christ  in   becoming  Man  (Quod 


584  THE  DOLPHIN. 

sum  causa  tuae  viae) ;  the  next  stanza  sums  up  the  whole  loving 
life  of  Christ  in  the  literal  and  figurative  weariness  of  Christ  at  the 
Well  of  Jacob  ( Quaerens  me  sedisti  lassus),  and  the  last  scene  of 
that  life  on  the  Cross  (Redemisti  crucem  passus).  Each  of  these 
stanzas  concludes  with  a  prayer  ;  the  third  line  of  the  first  being 
Ne  me  perdas  ilia  die,  and  of  the  second,  Tantus  labor  non  sit 
cassus ;  while  they  are  followed  by  a  stanza  (symmetrically,  like 
the  third  lines  in  the  stanzas,  a  third  stanza  in  the  division)  of 
appropriate  prayer.  Similarly,  the  second  division  (of  three 
stanzas,  as  before),  beginning  with  Ingemisco  tanquam  reus,  and 
dealing  with  that  repentance  which  is  the  second  basis  of  an 
appeal  for  mercy,  comprises  three  stanzas,  of  which  the  first  one 
contains  an  acknowledgment  of  guilt,  and  the  second  points  to 
the  mercy  shown  by  Christ  to  the  penitent  hearts  of  the  sinful 
woman  and  the  dying  thief.  Each  of  these  stanzas  contains,  in  its 
third  line,  a  prayer ;  while  the  third  stanza  of  the  division  is,  as 
noted  in  the  case  of  the  similar  third  stanza  of  the  first  division, 
devoted  wholly  to  prayer.  Fortified  now  by  remembrance  of 
Christ's  love  (as  shown  in  His  incarnation,  life  and  death)  and  His 
mercy  (as  shown  to  Mary  and  to  the  dying  thief),  the  singer  once 
more  turns  his  gaze,  in  prospect,  to  that  picture  of  the  Last  Judg- 
ment which  had  overwhelmed  him  with  terror.  Now,  however, 
he  looks  forward  with  hope : 

Inter  oves  locum  praesta, 
Et  ab  hoedis  me  sequestra 
Statuens  in  parte  dextra. 

The  transition  is  again  natural  and  logical ;  and  in  making  it, 
he  gives  himself  opportunity  to  sketch  the  last  scenes  of  that 
Great  Day  of  Wrath.  The  Scriptural  division  of  the  sheep  from 
the  goats  is  placed  before  us ;  and  in  the  following  stanza  we 
hear  the  voice  of  Christ  calling  the  "  blessed  of  His  Father  "  to 
heaven,  and  uttering  an  everlasting  woe  on  the  accursed.  The 
following  (and  final)  stanza  writes,  as  the  last  word  of  the  pathetic 
final  line,  the  appropriate  word  finis. 

Who  can  venture  to  say  that  a  hymn  which,  within  such 
brief  limits,  can  present  such  a  wealth  of  Scriptural  allusiveness 
moulded  into  such  perfect  form ;  can  state  so  succinctly  and 
develop  so  logically  its  theme ;  can  bring  together,  without  con- 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAEr  585 

fusion  of  thought  or  blurring  of  impressions,  such  felicitous  word- 
painting  of  the  tremendous  scene  it  handles  and  such  pathetic 
pleadings  of  the  heart  that  contemplates  that  scene  ;  can  condense 
so  adequately  whole  tragedies  and  perfect  prayers  in  the  space  of 
a  single  line,  and  can  do  this  with  the  precision  of  a  scholastic 
philosopher  stating  or  proving  his  thesis,  and  at  the  same  time 
with  the  felicitous  ease  of  an  accomplished  rhetorician  moving 
with  confident  gracefulness  within  the  "  narrow  plot  of  ground  " 
of  his  self-imposed  poetic  and  stanzaic  and  rhymic  limitations; 
who,  indeed,  can  venture  to  say  that  such  a  hymn  is  not  an 
incomparable  masterpiece  both  of  poetry  and  of  hymnody  ? 

XVIII.  XVIII. 

Lacrimosa  dies  ilia  Doleful  is  that  day 

Qua  resurget  ex  favilla  Whereon  shall  rise  from  the  glowing  ashes 

Judicandus  homo  reus  :  Guilty  man  to  be  judged  : 

Huic  ergo  parce,  Deus.  Him  therefore  spare,  O  God. 

Pie  Jesu,  Domine,  Merciful  Jesus,  Lord, 

Dona  eis  requiem.     Amen.  Grant  them  rest.     Amen. 

Daniel  remarks  that  for  a  time  he  thought  that  these  verses 
had  been  added  to  the  original  poem  in  order  to  make  it  suitable 
for  a  sequence  in  the  Mass  for  the  dead,  but  that  his  more  matured 
judgment  considered  the  poem  to  have  been  written  by  its  author 
as  a  sequence  for  the  dead. 

The  Mantuan  marble  text  did  not  include  these  three  couplets, 
but  ended  with  :    Voca  me  cum  benedictis,  followed  by  the  stanza  : 

Ut  consors  beatitatis  That  amid  the  blessed  band 

Vivam  cum  justificatis  I  may  share  their  glory  grand 

In  aevum  aeternitatis.  In  the  endless  Fatherland. 

To  these  twenty-one  stanzas  (i.  e.f  the  four  introductory  ones, 
the  sixteen  of  the  Roman  missal,  and  this  appended  one)  of  the 
Mantuan  marble,  the  editor  of  the  Konigsberg  Gesangbuch 
added  a  further  final  one  : 

Ubi  malorum  levamen  There,  no  more  by  evils  pressed, 

In  te,  Jesu,  mi  solamen,  Jesus,  on  Thy  loving  breast 

Per  saeclorum  saecla.     Amen.  I  shall  find  an  endless  rest. 

The  Lacrimosa  couplets  are  replaced  in  a  Brandenburg  missal 
by: 

Ne  gehennae  ignis  laedat  Let  Thy  handiwork  be  free 

Tuum  plasma  ;  sed  te  edat,  Of  Gehenna  ;  and  in  Thee 

Digne  semper  in  te  credat.  Find  sweet  food  and  liberty. 


586 


THE  DOLPHIN. 


And  in  a  Vienna  MS.  by : 

Ne  me  perdas,  sed  regnare, 
Fac  cum  tuis,  Jesu  care, 
Et  in  coelis  gloriare. 


Lose  me  not ;  but  let  me  reign, 
Jesus,  with  Thy  blessed  train 
Who  in  heaven  foraye  remain. 


What  end  the  authors  of  these  supplementary,  or  rather  sup- 
positious, stanzas  sought,  is  not  easily  divined.  The  Lacrimosa 
couplets  are  not,  it  is  true,  in  the  stanzaic  forms  of  the  preceding 
strophes  of  the  hymn ;  and  only  two  of  the  couplets  rhyme, 
while  the  last  couplet  has  lines  of  only  seven  syllables.  On  the 
other  hand,  they  in  no  wise  mar  the  beauty  of  the  hymn,  even 
should  we  agree  with  some  hymnologists  in  supposing  them  a 
mere  addition  made  for  liturgical  reasons.  The  gradual  lessening 
of  the  triple  rhyming,  as  found  in  the  first  two  couplets,  together 
with  the  lessening  of  the  metrical  line  in  the  last  couplet,  forms 
rather  a  quiet  and  pleasing  cadence,  or  falling  away  from  the 
preceding  terrors. 

At  the  Lacrimosa  the  Hsemmerlein  expansion  begins,  Dr. 
Coles'  translation  of  which  may  be  added  here  for  the  sake  of 
completeness : 


Lachrymosa  die  ilia, 
Cum  resurget  ex  favilla, 
Tanquam  ignis  ex  scintilla, 

Judicandus  homo  reus  ; 
Huic  ergo  parce,  Deus; 
Esto  semper  adjutor  meus. 

Quando  coeli  sunt  movendi, 
Dies  adsunt  tunc  tremendi, 
Nullum  tempus  poenitendi. 

Sed  salvatis  laeta  dies, 
Et  damnatis  nulla  quies, 
Sed  daemonum  effigies. 

O  tu  Deus  majestatis, 
Alme  candor  Trinitatis, 
Nunc  conjunge  cum  beatis. 

Vitam  meam  fac  felicem 
Propter  tuam  genitricem 
Jesse  florem  et  radicem. 

Praesta  nobis  tunc  levamen, 
Dulce  nostrum  fac  certamen, 
Ut  clamemus  omnes,  Amen  ! 


On  that  day  of  woe  and  weeping, 
When,  like  fire  from  spark  upleaping, 
Starts  from  ashes  where  he's  sleeping, 

Man  account  to  Thee  to  render, 
Spare  the  miserable  offender  ! 
Be  my  helper  and  defender  ! 

When  the  heavens  away  are  flying, 
Days  of  trembling  then  and  crying, 
•For  repentance  time  denying  ; 

To  the  saved  a  day  of  gladness, 
To  the  damned  a  day  of  sadness, 
Demon  forms  and  shapes  of  madness. 

God  of  infinite  perfection, 
Trinity's  serene  reflection, 
Give  me  part  with  the  election  ! 

Happiness  upon  me  shower, 

For  Thy  Mother's  sake,  with  power, 

Who  is  Jesse's  root  and  flower. 

From  Thy  fulness  comfort  pour  us, 
Fight  Thou  with  us,  or  fight  for  us, 
So  we'll  shout,  Amen,  in  chorus. 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  587 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  Hsemmerlein  text  makes  hide  refer 
to  the  "  first  person  "  or  the  singer  of  the  hymn  ;  for  "  Esto  sem- 
per adjutor  meus "  follows  immediately.  Translators  refer  huic 
generally  to  the  preceding  homo  reus,  Wallace  referring  it,  how- 
ever, to  the  corpse  to  be  interred. 

The  Mantuan  Marble  prefixed,  as  we  have  seen,  four  stanzas, 
Dr.  Irons'  rendering  of  which  is  as  follows  : 

Cogita,  anima  fidelis,  Think,  O  Christian  soul  and  sigh — 

Ad  quid  respondere  velis  Unto  what  thou  must  reply, 

Christe  venturo  de  coelis  ;  When  Christ  cometh  from  the  sky  ! 

Cum  deposcet  rationem  When  He  asketh  one  by  one, 

Ob  boni  commissionem,  For  each  good  deed  left  undone, 

Ob  mali  commissionem.  And  for  every  evil  done. 

Dies  ilia,  dies  irae,  Ah  that  day,  for  judgment  sent ! 

Quam  conemur  praevenire,  May  we  now  that  day  prevent — 

Obviamque  Deo  ire  ;  Meet  our  God,  and  now  repent ! 

Seria  contritione,  With  contrition  deep  and  sad, 

Gratiae  apprehensione,  With  all  grace  that  may  be  had, 

Vitae  emendatione.  And  amend  our  life,  if  bad. 

As  has  been  pointed  out  already,  both  of  these  additions  to 
the  Missal  text  must  be  considered  as  alien  to  the  original  text  of 
the  poem.3  They  need  not  detain  us  further,  and  have  been 
included  here  merely  for  the  sake  of  completeness. 

Whether  the  six  lines  beginning  "  Lacrimosa  dies  ilia  "  are 
older  than  the  Missal  text  or  were  added  to  the  Hymn  for  the 
purpose  of  adapting  it  to  its  liturgical  function  as  a  sequence,  is  a 
question  that  has  been  disputed  on  both  sides.  Mone,  as  has  been 
shown  in  these  papers,  judges  them  older  than  the  century  gener- 
ally considered  as  that  of  the  composition  of  the  Hymn.  Mr. 
Warren,  however,  thinks  the  proof  inconclusive.  They  depart, 
of  course,  somewhat  violently  from  the  stanzaic  structure  of  the 
rest  of  the  sequence,  and  form  rhymed  couplets  instead  of  trip- 
lets, although  the  first  two  couplets  retain  the  rhythm  of  the  pre- 
ceding verses.  The  last  two  lines  depart  both  from  the  rhythm 
and  the  rhyme  of  the  Hymn,  unless  we  may  consider  the  in  of 
requiem  negligible.     March  favors  the  construction — 

3  See  The  Dolphin,  November,  1904,  p.  520. 


588  THE  DOLPHIN. 

Pie  Jesu,  Domine, 
Dona  eos  requie, 

as  it  consults  for  the  rhymic  quality  of  the  sequence  and  is  "  a 
frequent  construction  with  dono,  of  which  an  example  should  be 
in  the  grammars."4  He  refers  for  illustration  to  the  Ven.  Bede's 
hymn  De  Natali  Innocentium,  in  which  these  lines  occur  : — 

Donat  supernis  sedibus 
Quos  rex  peremit  impius. 

The  concluding  couplet  of  the  Dies  Irae  contains  distinctly  a 
prayer  for  the  happy  repose  of  the  souls  of  the  dead,  and  has 
been  therefore  looked  at  askance  by  many  Protestant  translators, 
who  have  evaded  its  direct  rendering  in  various  twisting  fashions. 
Like  so  many  other  Latin  hymns,  the  Dies  Irae  has  proved  too 
attractive  for  our  separated  brethren,  and  they  were  forced  to  pay  it 
the  tribute  of  translation,  although  their  religious  views  constrain 
them  to  a  makeshift  as  its  concluding  couplet.  "  It  is  not  won- 
derful," says  Trench,  "  that  a  poem  such  as  this  should  have  con- 
tinually allured  and  continually  defied  translators  ;"  and  he  refers 
to  the  letter  sent  by  Jeremy  Taylor  to  John  Evelyn,  suggesting 
that  Evelyn  make  a  translation  of  it :  "I  was  thinking  to  have 
begged  of  you  a  translation  of  that  well-known  hymn,  Dies  Irae, 
dies  ilia,  which,  if  it  were  a  little  changed,  would  make  an  excel- 
lent divine  song."5  "  If  it  were  a  little  changed  " — that  has  been 
the  text  held  in  mind  by  our  separated  brethren.  But  Mr.  Orby 
Shipley,  who  as  a  convert  to  Catholicity  as  well  as  a  distinguished 
hymnologist  could  look  at  such  a  treatment  of  the  Hymn  from 
the  double  standpoint  of  his  previous  and  his  subsequent  religious 
convictions,  has  not  a  kind  word  for  the  revisers  of  the  Hymn. 
"  Perhaps  the  main  point  of  hostile  criticism  which  in  any  case 
demands  a  protest  at  our  hands,  and  which  may  first  be  stated, 
though  it  comes  last  in  order  of  time,  is  one  which  most  unfavor- 
ably impresses  a  Catholic  reader  of  many  Protestant  translations. 
It  is  this,  the  manner,  unjustifiable  in  morals  and  false  in  criticism, 
in  which  the  concluding  couplet  of  Dies  Irae  is  either  tampered 

*  Latin  Hymns,  p.  26 1. 

6  Quoted  in  Trench's  Sacred  Latin  Poetry  from  Life  of  Jeremy  Taylor,  Eden's 
Ed. 


COMMENT  ON  THE    "DIES  IRAEr  589 

with,  or  mistranslated.  This  course  is  often  adopted  by  authors 
who  do  not  boldly  and  more  honestly  omit  from  their  rendering 
the  couplet  altogether.  Underthe  circumstances,  simple  omission 
would  be  commendable  by  comparison  with  the  more  usual 
method  of  making  Thomas  of  Celano  speak  in  English  like  a 
Protestant,  rather  than,  as  he  really  speaks,  in  universal  accents, 
the  faith  of  a  Catholic.  At  least  twelve  or  thirteen  of  these  thirty- 
two  translations  (including  fragments)  either  omit  the  Dona  eis 
requiem,  or,  to  use  the  received  term  amongst  Anglican  editors  of 
Catholic  devotions  and  biography,  not  to  speak  of  theology, 
'adapt'  it — which  phrase,  being  interpreted,  means  to  make  a 
deliberate  mistranslation.  There  are,  however,  noble  exceptions 
to  this  category.  .  .  .  But,  even  then,  a  fresh  difficulty  in 
ethics  arises,  which  may  be  named,  but  which  it  is  no  business  of 
the  writer  to  attempt  to  solve.  How  can  one,  being  a  Protestant, 
who  is  loyal  to  his  own  communion,  become  an  accomplice  to  the 
singing,  in  a  hymn  before  God,  of  words  the  meaning  and  tenor 
of  which  have  been  systematically  and  avowedly  expunged  in 
prose  from  the  public  worship  of  his  persuasion — such  words 
involving  Catholic  prayer  for  the  dead  and  the  implied  doctrine 
of  purgatory  ?  It  is  also  noteworthy  that  some  translators,  from 
whom  (even  at  the  cost  of  moral  consistency)  we  should  expect 
at  least  a  Catholic-worded  remembrance  of  the  faithful  departed, 
have  disappointed  us  :  whilst  others,  from  whom  we  should  expect 
less,  have  given  us  more."6  Dr.  Coles,  who  prints  the  Latin  text,7 
omits  the  concluding  couplet,  and  of  course  gives  no  English 
rendering  of  it.  Thus,  too,  the  seven  versions  in  Judge  Nott's 
volume  omit  the  couplet,  with  the  exception  of  Dr.  Irons',  which 
makes  the  couplet  a  prayer  uttered  by  the  living  for  their  own 
eternal  rest  : — 

Lord,  who  didst  our  souls  redeem, 
Grant  a  blessed  requiem  !     Amen. 

Hymns  Ancient  and  Modern  comes  out  boldly  with  a  revision  of 
Dr.  Irons'  couplet : 

Lord,  all-pitying,  Jesus  blest, 

Grant  them  Thine  eternal  rest.     Amen. 

6  Dublin  Review  ,  April,  1883,  p.  371. 

7  Dies  Irae  i?i  Thirteen  Original  Versions. 


590  THE  DOLPHIN. 

This  change,  which  is  really  the  version  of  Isaac  Williams  (ap- 
pearing first  in  1834  as  a  translation  of  the  Paris  Missal  text, 
Crucis  expandens  vexilld),  had  already  been  adopted  by  other 
Protestant  hymnals.  In  this  connection  it  may  be  noted  as  a 
curious  fact  that  our  own  authentic  prayer-book,  the  Baltimore 
Manual  of  Prayers,  which  uses  the  version  of  Dr.  Irons,  retains 
the  mistranslation  of  the  last  couplet,  while  Hymns  Ancient  and 
Modern  revised  it,  properly,  by  taking  Williams'  translation.  It 
is  a  perfect  rendering  of  the  Catholic  thought  of  the  original,  and 
a  Catholic  can  not  but  feel  gratified  that  in  Hymns  Ancient  and 
Modern,  whose  annual  sales  run  up,  it  is  said,  into  the  million  mark, 
the  true  translation  should  be  so  widely  spread.  So,  too,  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Copeland's  version  renders  the  thought  correctly : 

Prince  of  pity,  Jesu  blest, 

Lord  and  Saviour,  give  them  rest. 

More  direct  still,  if  possible,  is  the  rendering  by  "  O "  in  the 
Christian  Remembrancer  (1825) : 

Saviour,  listen  while  we  plead, 
We,  the  living,  for  the  dead. 

The  thought  of  the  original  is  also  retained,  in  the  very  words  of 
the  Hymn,  in  the  translation  of  William  Hay,  in  the  Bengal  An- 
nual (1831) : 

Lord,  we  bend  to  Thee  for  them, 


All  of  these  correct  versions  illustrate  the  hunger  of  humanity 
for  a  prayerful  remembrance  of  the  dead,  and  are  a  direct  tribute 
to  Catholic  doctrine  by  Protestant  writers.  And  so  the  Rev.  J. 
Anketell  moralizes  in  the  American  Church  Review  (1873,  p.  206), 
when  describing  an  incident  that  happened  during  his  missionary 
stay  in  Dresden.  By  the  explosion  of  fire  damp  in  a  mine  some 
six  miles  from  that  city,  three  hundred  unfortunates  perished. 
One  of  the  many  charitable  undertakings  for  the  relief  of  their 
families  was  a  sacred  concert  in  a  Lutheran  church  in  Dresden, 
at  which  Mozart's  Requiem  was  sung  with  full  orchestral  accom- 
paniment: "It  would  be  vain  to  attempt,"  wrote  Mr.  Anketell, 
"  to  describe  in  words  the  effect  of  the  Dies  Irae  on  that  occasion. 


COMMENT  ON  THE  "DIES  IRAE."  591 

Many  were  moved  to  tears,  and  when  the  splendid  basso  com- 
menced his  solo : 

Tuba  minim  spargens  sonum 
Per  sepulchra  regionum, 

and  the  clarion  notes  of  a  trumpet  accompanied  his  voice,  one 
could  well  imagine  that  the  final  doom  was  about  to  be  pro- 
nounced !     Toward  the  close  of  the  hymn, 

Voca  me  cum  benedictis  ! 

a  golden  ray  of  light  from  the  declining  sun  came  shooting  through 
the  stained  windows  and  fretted  aisles.  .  .  .  Passing  strange 
was  it  to  hear,  in  that  Protestant  church,  the  sound  of  a  requiem 
for  the  dead.  But  hardened  indeed,  in  its  prejudices,  must  have 
been  the  heart  which  could  not  have  joined  in  the  prayer : 

Requiem  aeternam  dona  eis,  Domine, 
Et  lux  perpetua  luceat  eis." 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Anketell  was  a  Protestant  minister ;  and  the  prayer 
in  which,  as  he  thought,  only  a  heart  hardened  by  its  prejudices 
could  have  refused  to  join,  is  a  prayer  for  the  happy  repose  of  the 
souls  of  the  dead.  He  can  not  have  been  insensible  to  the  doc- 
trinal point  involved,  for  he  takes  his  quotation,  not  from  the 
Hymn  itself,  but  from  another  part  of  the  liturgy  of  the  Requiem 
Mass.  The  thought  in  both  is  identical ;  but  his  quotation  serves 
to  emphasize  strongly  the  liturgical  character  of  the  Hymn  and 
the  uncompromising  Catholicity  of  its  concluding  couplet.  Death 
is  not  the  Divider,  but  the  Reuniter ;  and  Protestants  will  con- 
tinue to  utter  for  the  dead  a  couplet  of  the  great  Hymn  that  illus- 
trates a  devotion  wholly  Catholic  as  it  is  wholly  beautiful,  and  as 
human  as  it  is  divine. 

H.  T.  Henry. 
Overbrook  Seminary,  Pa. 


Student's  Library  liable* 


RECENT  SCIENCE. 

Uranium,  Mother  of  Metals. — It  was  the  custom  till  quite  re- 
cently to  laugh  at  the  philosophers  and  physical  scientists  of  the 
centuries  before  the  nineteenth  for  thinking  that  such  a  thing  as 
a  transmutation  of  metals  was  possible.  It  was  practically  a 
universal  belief  that  almost  any  metal  might  by  natural  processes 
after  a  sufficient  length  of  time  be  converted  into  any  other.  Even 
so  distinguished  and  so  recent  a  scientific  genius  as  Newton  was 
a  firm  believer  in  the  possibility  of  transmutation.  To  a  friend 
about  to  visit  certain  copper  mines  on  the  Continent,  Newton  sug- 
gested less  than  two  hundred  years  ago  that  the  friend  might  find 
it  especially  to  his  advantage  to  study  the  process  of  transmutation 
in  situ  in  some  of  the  copper  mines.  The  English  mathematician 
advanced  as  a  proof  of  the  fact  that  such  change  must  take  place, 
some  specimens  in  the  museum  at  Cambridge  in  which  gold  was 
present  in  connection  with  copper,  and  in  which  therefore  it 
seemed  that  the  transforming  process  had,  to  a  limited  degree  at 
least,  taken  place. 

Even  at  the  present  time,  there  are  not  a  few  who  would 
laugh  at  this  idea  of  Newton's,  but  they  are  not  the  ones  who 
know  most  of  the  present  position  of  chemical  science.  If  there 
is  one  doctrine  that  has  been  revolutionized  completely  within  the 
last  few  years,  it  is  the  supposed  individuality  of  the  so-called 
chemical  elements  and  the  assumed  impossibility  of  their  ever 
being  transformed  into  one  another.  Most  of  the  newer  opinion 
in  the  matter  has  come  as  the  result  of  studies  of  the  radio-active 
metals  and  especially  of  uranium,  radium,  and  helium.  As  has 
been  recently  remarked,  Uranus,  after  whom  uranium  received  its 
name,  was  in  the  old  mythology  the  father  of  all  the  gods. 
Recent  results  of  investigation  with  regard  to  uranium  would 
seem  to  show  that  the  designation  given  this  substance  was  much 
more  appropriate  than  perhaps  the  discoverer  ever  dreamt.    There 


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